Haven
by bl00bl00d
Summary: John's world is torn apart when he tests positive for the disease that threatens humanity-a disease that turns normal people into violent monsters, with grey skin and yellow eyes. He's quickly taken from his town and dumped in the fenced-in city 'Haven', where all the diseased go to live out their remaining days.
1. Chapter 1

John Egbert began his new life sitting in the back of an ambulance. It wasn't much of an ambulance anymore, the stretchers and medical equipment had been taken out, replaced by benches lining the walls. The inside was plain white, the benches hard and uncomfortable. However, it still had a window on the back doors, and through that he could see his hometown rapidly becoming a speck in the distance.

Trying to divert his attention from the fact that he was leaving for the last time, John instead shifted his gaze to his two companions in the modified back of the ambulance. They were sitting across from each other, as close to the door as they could get. Both of their gazes were directed out the window, they hadn't spoken a word or even paid the slightest attention to John once the ambulance had started moving. He wasn't even sure if they were male or female, their entire bodies were obscured by bulky, white suits, their faces covered by gas masks which gave them a bug-like appearence.

It didn't alarm John, though. He was far too used to seeing protective gear, he even had a mask and suit at home hanging in his closet. His dad had even got it custom fit for him so he wouldn't have to walk around treading on the toes, but none of that mattered now. He would never need to wear one again.

He sighed and banged his head back against the wall, the echo reverberating around the enclosed space. The white-suited guard on the left shifted their weapon slightly. The worst part about the trip, besides the imminent desitination, was the boredom. John's natural instinct was to yell or scream or do anything that would interrupt the ceasless routine of doing nothing, but common sense told him that it wasn't the right place to cause mischief. They were on the highway now, in the middle of the desert, and John knew that if he made a fuss they wouldn't hesitate to chuck him out the back. Death would be slow and painful out here with the only passerbys more modified medical trucks. Where he was going there was food and water. Or at least there was supposed to be.

A while later, after giving up trying to count the amount of dirt specks on the wall opposite him, John tried the window again. The sun was sinking down, his hometown long gone. Along with his school, his friends his dad-John banged his head back against the wall again. He had to stop thinking about that. They told him to forget everything, he didn't even have a chance to say goodbye.

"It's easier that way kid, new start, yeah?" The woman had said as she steered him into the back of the truck, when asked why he couldn't see his dad again. The last glimpse he saw was a crowd of middle schoolers eagerly pressing their faces to the door, trying to see who tested positive. It was a rare occurrence in his school, John had only recalled it one other time. He didn't know the kid though, just some scrawny fifth grader with a huge mop of hair. John had scanned the faces quickly, hoping for a last glimpse of his best friends, but no use. They wouldn't have found out it was him until too late, besides, they never tried to look in the testing room, said it was demeaning to the poor kid getting tested.

Poor kid getting tested. That was now all he would be remembered as, the poor sap who got a red light.

The sun dipped all the way below the horizon, the purples and pinks of the desert morphing into plain black. John didn't know how long they'd been sitting there, his phone and watch had been taken from him. He guessed it had been at least five hours.

Finally, the truck slowed down to a stop. John's stomach lurched. The realization began to sink in. He was going to Haven. He was going to Haven and he was never coming out.


	2. Chapter 2

The back of the ambulance banged open, and the two guards jumped down, then gestured to John. He stood unsteadily, his legs half-asleep from the long journey. He walked forward and they each grabbed one of his arms, lifting him out the back.

His feet hit dusty gravel, and he looked in the direction they had come. It was flat, grey desert as far as he could see. The only things breaking the flat line of the landscape were a few shrubs dotted here and there. The moon was covered by a thick layer of clouds.

Feeling extremely apprehensive, he slowly swiveled around to face his new home. Haven was a city, in its prime it was a sought-out destination for anyone who wanted to do something with their lives. It housed over a million people and was home to some of the greatest inventors. That's what it was before the disease anyways. That's where it's rumored to have started, but nobody except the government really knows the truth.

Now, it was nothing more than a ruin. The skyline of the city was jagged, the once-tall skyscrapers had chunks worn off, or missing the tops altogether. There were no lights coming from any of the windows. Though a chain-like gate he could see a street, but with no working streetlights it was cloaked in darkness. If he squinted he could just make out movement, shadowy figures creeping silently around. He saw the entrances to several thin alleyways, pitch black. He had a sinking suspicion that the city had become nothing more than a maze.

Suddenly a gust of wind blew from inside, carrying with it an overpowering smell of rot, John almost gagged. It smelled like no one had taken the trash out for years along with other something else that he didn't want to know the source of. He was well aware that the disease greatly shortened your lifespan, but before this he had assumed that people went in and disposed of the bodies.

Now, however, he was a little unsure.

The entirety of the city was surrounded by walls, huge fifteen foot walls that buzzed with electricity. The only way he could see inside was thorugh the chain-link gate at the front, covered in padlocks. More guards stood outside of that, dressed in all black suits and motionless.

The two guards who had been in the ambulance kept their hands on his shoulders as they steered him forward. One of the guards pointed his weapon through the gate while the other unlocked the huge padlocks. The gate eased forward without a sound, leaving a tiny gap open.

John tried fruitlessly to dig his heels into the ground, his breath was coming quicker, this couldn't be happening, this couldn't be happening, this-

CLANG!

The white-suited guards shoved him through the opening and shut the gate. John turned and clung to it, he was inches away from the man closing the padlocks again. Tears were springing to his eyes, his knuckles white.

"Please, let me out! Please, I can't do this I'm just thirteen you can't do this!" His plea escalated into almost a shriek. The man raised his head, finished with his task.

"Keep your voice down. Don't want to attract attention here. Now beat it."

John ignored him and kept his knuckles wrapped firmly around the metal, trying to look directly into where he hoped the man's eyes were. The guard sighed and lifted his gun, pointing it at John's forehead.

"You have ten seconds to get out of my sight, or I'll kill you now and be done with it. This is for the better, you know. You have a chance to live the rest of your life."

John was still for three seconds. Then, his fingers slowly unclasped as he stumbled back, turning to face the darkened street. He slowly stepped forward, his legs shaking so hard they threatened to give way.

"I said move!" The guard shouted. John picked up his pace, more scared than he had ever felt in his life. He moved until the darkness completely swallowed him, then collapsed on his knees, his entire body shaking. The tears that had been welling up in his eyes burst forth as he clamped his hands over his mouth, trying not to make a sound. His entire body wracked in sobs as he shuffled backward until he hit a wall, and curled into the smallest ball he could. His glasses dug uncomfortably into his knees, but he didn't move. He half wanted someone, or something to find him and get it all over with, but he couldn't bring himself to make noise.

Finally, he raised his head, his eyes beginning to adjust. To his left he could see the gate, a small speck of silvery light. ahead of him he could see the wall of a crumbling brick building, several small alleyway entrances leading into and through it. The street was cracked concrete, covered in old soda bottles and scraps of who-knows-what.

He took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, and put them back on. John slowly moved his hands backward and pressed against the wall, pushing himself to a standing position. Suddenly he sensed movement to the right of him. When he squinted he could just see the silhouette of a tall figure with wild hair. They had something short and thick in one hand, like a small baseball bat, and was slowly twirling it around, each twirl bringing it a slow step closer to John.

"Hel-hello?" John stuttered, his voice sounding oddly loud in the silence. The figure said nothing, but stepped closer. John could see eyes now, yellow glowing eyes. John swallowed, telling himself that it was just a side effect of the disease, yellow eyes were what everyone had here. He stepped closer to the figure, trying to see it better. The next things that came into view were teeth, a mouth full of pointed, razor sharp teeth.

A sound drifted to his ears, the person was humming. The tune was simple and vaguely familiar, it reminded him of a day he had once with his dad. However, here the tune took on an eerie feel. John's earlier decision to stand his ground was sounding more and more stupid by the millisecond.

He took a step backwards, the figure did nothing but advance on him, one step every twirl. John went backwards again, and the figure took two steps forward. John took another step back and the figure suddenly broke into a run, John startled and quickened his pace, but the figure was closer and closer, it's mouth open in a horrible grin and it's eyes boring into his own and the last thing he would see was three horrible scars running across the length of its grey, scabby face when all of a sudden something yanked John sideways by the shoulder and he snapped out of his petrified state. Whatever it was pulled John into a sprint, taking him into an alleyway, then another, changing directions so fast John couldn't keep up.

He could hear the figure behind him, with loud footsteps and horrible, rasping breath but as he was pulled farther and farther and footsteps got quieter and quieter until there was no sound but his own labored breathing. Whoever had grabbed him pulled him to a stop in front of another crumbly building.

The grip on his shoulder was released, but another hand clamped over his mouth, one on his back, and he was forced through a small hole in the wall which led to inside the building. The inside was even darker than the street, he couldn't see a thing. As John lay pinned against the concrete, he could hear the labored breathing of his savior. He was roughly pulled into a sitting position, and out of the darkness came an agitated whisper

"What the _fuck_ did you think you were doing?"


	3. Chapter 3

"I-" John began, but was cut off.

"No. You're an idiot. I mean, I assume you're new but you're still a complete idiot."

"I know but-"

"It's like the first rule of this place," the person continued, ignoring John altogether. The voice was obviously male. "You see the clown-hell, you see anyone walking towards you in a slow and menacing way you do not say 'hello' or try for any kind of contact, you turn tail and you get the fuck away from them."

"Yeah..." was all John could think of to say.

"Yeah is right. You can't be expecting someone to save your sorry ass next time."

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it. It's kind of my thing. Who are you anyways?"

"I'm John. John Egbert."

"Karkat." John's eyes had begun to adjust, he could see the vague outline of Karkat sitting next to him and staring straight ahead. He spoke again.

"Well now that you're here, I suppose I have to take you in. You don't have anywhere to stay right?"

"Right."

"Ok then, follow me. And be quiet once we get outside." He turned towards John, his yellow eyes glowing brightly, but it was slightly less creepy than before. Only slightly.

Karkat crawled back through the small hole and John followed. They were in a thin alleyway, barely five feet across. It twisted and turned and seemed to even loop back on itself at one point as John silently followed Karkat. He didn't hesitate as he turned and followed other paths, at one point skirting through a musty-smelling building and out the other side through a broken window, he seemed to have the entire city memorized.

After about fifteen minutes of complicated paths, they came to the entrance of what looked like an old clothing store. The sign was grime-coated and illegible, but the inside held rusty clothes racks and a few decrepit mannequins.

Karkat ignored these and went straight to the right wall, where he knelt down and pulled up a section of the stained carpet. A trapdoor was attached to the stained fabric, and below it yawned a dark hole. The top of a wooden ladder could be seen, leaning against the side of the hole.

"In you go." Karkat said, gesturing. "You can jump, it's not far." John nervously peered into the hole. He couldn't see anything but blackness.

"I'm good," he said and reached his foot down onto the ladder. John began to climb down, the ladder wobbled a bit but then steadied. As soon as his entire body was below floor level, he felt a rush of air as Karkat jumped down and the trapdoor closed with a WHUMP!

John was left in complete blackness, he couldn't even see his hands in front of him.

"Does anything have lights here?" He asked, calling down to Karkat.

"Yeah, we do inside, but not in the entrance. Don't want to attract attention." Karkat answered from directly behind him. The ladder was a lot shorter than John had thought. He stepped off, and followed Karkat's footsteps to his right. They were in a sort of tunnel, which curved around to the right and was all of a sudden flooded with light, thanks to several florescent lightbulbs strung up across the ceiling. The tunnel was dirt, with wooden support beams every few feet.

"Yeah, see? We got most of them working-" He glanced back at John then cut off. "Holy shit."

John didn't answer, he was too busy staring at Karkat.

"I realized you were new but I didn't think you were this new. Damn, you still look human."

Karkat's words didn't register, John was transfixed. He had heard about the effects of the disease, it had been clearly outlined in school and government pamphlets, but besides the horrific encounter that had happened earlier, he hadn't really seen a troll. That's what everyone called the people once they'd turned.

Karkat's skin was a dark grey color, his eyes yellow. His lips had blackened, and behind them John could see glimpses of a mouth full of pointed teeth. His hair was dark, but John wasn't sure if that was an effect or not, and small orange horns peeked out from each side of his head, like oversized pieces of candy corn.

The troll in question seemed to grasp the fact that John wasn't paying the slightest attention to what he was saying, so he quietly trailed off and allowed John to observe him for a moment. Personally, Karkat was relieved to see someone looking so normal. Being surrounded by grey skin and glowing eyes the past few years of his life made him fear that he would forget what normal people even looked like. But he knew that, given a few months, the kid would end up just like him. A freak.

After a few more seconds Karkat turned and continued walking down the dimly lit tunnel, John trailing in his wake.

"Get used to it." He said.

"What?"

"What we look like. You're going to turn soon enough. When did you get here?"

"I got diagnosed this morning."

"Shit...they're taking them quicker now. Well, you should start seeing your skin change by as early as next week." John glanced uneasily down at his hand. It was still a pale, peachy color.

"So skin is first?"

"Yeah skin is first. Then hair, but you won't have to worry about that. Then eyes, teeth and finally you grow these weird little things," he said, gesturing to his horns. "Mine are still small, haven't been here too long."

"Does it...hurt?" He asked, trying not to picture weird growths punching through his skull.

"Horns? No. Well, a little bit. It's kind of like growing teeth."

"Oh."

They had reached a small door which Karkat knocked five times on. They heard a sigh coming from the other side, feet shuffling and then the sound of a padlock being opened. The door swung inward to reveal another troll, with red and blue glasses and a mildly cross expresison, which softened when he saw Karkat.

"Oh hey kk," he said. "Who's the new kid?"

"This is John. Makara was about to bludgeon him so I brought him back."

"As usual then?"

"Yeah."

The other troll stepped back, letting Karkat and John inside. He spoke with a lisp, probably due to the fang-like front teeth poking out of his mouth. Neither of the trolls looked much older than John. Karkat shut the door and locked it.

"This is Captor-Sollux. He's an annoying prick but he's also the reason that we have electricity and computers," Karkat explained.

"Your affection knows no bounds," Sollux said sarcastically as he made his way back to the corner of the room, where several beat up monitors flickered on a sturdy wooden table.

"What did he mean 'as usual'?" John asked Karkat.

"He has a stupid obsession with rescuing idiots," Sollux interjected. "No offense."

Karkat glared at him. "I don't know. Like I said before, it's kind of my thing. Like, there was stuff I wanted to do, you know, before all this shit happened. And now I'm stuck here for the rest of my short, stupid life, so I figure I might as well try to do something, help somebody. I probably have six years left, at best, so I guess it's my way of trying to achieve something. It sounds dumb when I say it out loud though."

John shrugged. "I don't think that sounds dumb at all."

**((authors note: I decided not to write sollux's lisp in with th's or anything because the way I imagine it is way more subtle, so you can read it in your head any way you like))**


	4. Chapter 4

Karkat crossed the room and flopped down on one of the two beaten-up sofas. John followed and sat down at the one perpendicular to it and glanced around the room. It was fairly small, the sofas sitting in the middle around a coffee table covered in stains. On it sat a slightly outdated flat-screen TV. Sollux sat in a swivel chair, typing rapidly, but it was too far away for John to make out what he was saying. Next to the desk, there were several cabinets bolted on the wall, the paint peeling off. Underneath sat an oven, and on it several pans.

John turned behind him and saw that there were three niches in the wall, and in them were blankets and pillows-sort of bunk beds, John supposed. Next to them a door led into another room. The floor was covered in mismatched rugs and carpet squares, giving it a sort of checkerboard appearance.

"You hungry?" Karkat finally said.

"Tired..." John answered. He wanted to ask if he could sleep in one of those bunkbeds in the wall, but he felt like it might be rude.

"Well too bad. Sorry, but you have to stay up 'till dawn."

"What? Why?"

"We're nocturnal," Sollux answered without looking up from his screen. "Once your skin changes the sun burns."

"Like vampires?"

Sollux laughed. "Sort of, but it's not fatal. It just really fucking hurts."

"Whatever, I'm hungry." Karkat said, then got up and went over to the stove. John lay back on the sofa and stared up at the ceiling, figuring he might as well get used to being nocturnal now. Last night he slept in his own bed, and now here he was in the secret underground fort of two disease-ridden teenagers which had somehow become his new home.

Yesterday seemed ages away.

Five minutes later, Karkat returned with three bowls of soup, shoving one at John. He looked down at the bowl, surprised to see something so familiar.

"Ramen?" He asked.

"Yeah. Get used to it it's sort of the only fucking food that survives in this place."

"Aw, really?"

"Yeah. I mean, sometimes I can trade and get other stuff like twinkies or whatever but they didn't give us any food when we came and the grocery stores here are really, really old."

"We do have an oven," Sollux added. "That beats, like everyone else. Your welcome by the way."

Karkat rolled his eyes. "We've had it for like three years now, people don't need to keep thanking you."

Everyone was silent for a moment, the only sound was slurping noodles. After a few minutes, John spoke.

"So...what do you guys do here?"

"Dick around on the computer. Go outside. Kar sells black market ramen." Sollux said.

"I don't sell it, dumbass I trade it for stuff. The stuff that you use. And it's not the black market unless there's a regular market. I mean, there's no laws here so you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want."

"Especially shady noodle dealings in dark alleyways."

"Hell yeah."

A lump had formed in John's throat, unrelated to the soup he was eating. Karkat and Sollux's back and forth banter had forcibly reminded him of his own best friends. The phrase 'black market ramen' seemed exactly the kind of thing Dave would say for no fucking reason, then go on a long metaphorical tangent about it. He didn't even get to say goodbye to them, the last thing he had said was how much he didn't want to take that quiz in math, which Rose, Jade and Dave had agreed to. Then they all had to get in alphabetical order along with the rest of the school, so he drifted off to the front of the line with a wave and didn't see them again.

Sollux eventually got up and put on a movie, something that John remembered seeing in theatres several years ago, but he didn't pay much attention. When the first movie ended and they put on a second one, John could hardly keep his eyes open. Karkat gestured that he could sleep in the leftmost bottom bed, then muttered something about it being the worst to Sollux, who sniggered.

John, however, was far too tired to care. He curled up on his side, facing away from the two boys. He slipped off to sleep quickly, dreaming of home.

**(kind of a short and pointless chapter, i know, sorry. but next chapter will be longer and more stuff will happen i promise! thanks for reading everyone :D)**


	5. Chapter 5

John woke early the next morning-or night as it was now, because he went to bed so early...or late? John shook his head, trying not to confuse himself. Anyways, he was awake and Sollux and Karkat were clearly still asleep. He pulled the red comforter off him and rolled out of bed. He felt a little rumpled, having slept still in his clothes and shoes.

Trying not to wake the other two, he tiptoed to the door and unlocked it. He wasn't running away, Karkat and Sollux seemed friendly enough and he didn't have anywhere else to stay, he simply wanted to see the city when it was still light out.

John exited into the tunnel, then up the ladder, through the trap door, and into the dusty store. Giving the creepy mannequins a wide berth, he made his way out the door and into the empty street. The sun beat down, it was probably around six or seven in the evening. In the light, the alleyways seemed less threatening. Just kind of sad now. He glanced around, up at the tall buildings and got the sudden urge to climb one. He'd never been afraid of heights, tall places with lots of air and space around always beckoned him.

He raced back into the store, quickly finding a broken-down escalator in the back corner. He jogged up, taking two steps at a time and going up several floors. It took a while, travelling from escalator to escalator to staircase, but he made it up a significant amount of floors. The floors were full of offices now, empty cubicles and scattered papers still lying around. John now understood where Karkat and Sollux got all the furniture.

He finally reached the top floor, and attempted to open the door leading to the roof, but it was locked. Disappointed, he turned away, but a sudden gust of wind startled him. He turned to his left, the wind came through the many windows of the office that were all broken. Could he possibly...?

John clung to the ledge above him, the wind whipping through his hair. He had hesitated before coming out, then realized the fact that he had an incurable, fatal disease that would result in him transforming into a sort of monster like being that was burned by the sunlight. After that, climbing out on a window ledge didn't seem like that big of a deal.

Slowly, limb by limb, he crawled up the wall, which thankfully wasn't that far from the roof, which he flopped onto. It was flat, concrete and empty. It kind of reminded him of the top of Dave's apartment building, which he tried to avoid thinking about.

John lay on his back, eyes closed, trying to absorb as much heat and light as he could in the short time he had left. The sun beat down on him, soaking through his clothes and into his skin, causing his mind to relax more than it had this entire short, strange trip in Haven. He found himself dozing off, and not caring, because right now he was alone, in the best way possible.

He was woken up by a shake on the shoulder. He blinked, his right hand scrabbling for his glasses before shoving them on his face. He was greeted by glowing yellow eyes illuminating Karkat's face. It was dark out now, the stars were visible again.

"Hey," Karkat said. John shook his head, trying to wake up.

"How'd you know I was up here?"

"Well, I didn't. I thought you'd skipped out on us, this is just where I normally come. You aren't leaving though, right?"

"Yeah, I'm staying."

"Good. Get's a little lonely with just Captor for company." Karkat moved away and went to sit on the ledge, his back to John and his feet dangling over the edge.

"This is kinda my favorite place," Karkat continued. "I used to come up here in the daytime when I could, but night is good too. You can see everything that's going on. Makes it all seem insignificant sort of." He beckoned to John, who came over and sat next to him. The two of them peered down, looking at the complicated network of alleys and side streets. He could see shadows moving around, and a few flashes of yellow eyes here and there. They watched for a few minutes before John spoke.

"Do you get used to it?"

"What?"

"All this..."

"Sort of. I mean, I've been here since I was ten, sometimes I can hardly remember my old life now. This place is just so strange, like people die and kill each other all the time, that's basically normal. Sometimes I want to go back so badly, but then I remember I look like this. Man, it's bullshit, you know? Like my own parents probably wouldn't even recognize me at this point, my friends sure as hell wouldn't. I mean, to them I'm dead. We're all dead. They just shove us in this crapass city and that's it. Like 'heh, sorry kid, we don't care that you're a fucking fifth grader who has never spent more than a night away from your parents, we're not going to try to cure you, instead we're going to dump you in a city full of crazy people and have you slowly morph into a monster'."

John was silent for a moment. "That fucking sucks dude, I'm sorry."

"Eh, there's nothing much I can do really. So I guess you do get used to it over time. But if you want to survive that long, you're going to have to know a few things."

"Like what?"

"Well first, how to get around. But I'll teach you that over time. This city was sort of complicated when it was built, but it's even more complicated now because of all the gangs and collapsed buildings and other shit. So for now just follow me. Basically what you need to know is that there's twenty gates to get into the city, all evenly spaced around it. The one that you came through is pretty small, but it does lead directly to main street." Karkat pointed ahead to the right. "That over there is main street. Basically, stay off. Don't even go in the alleyways adjourning it. But you should already know that now." John nodded. He had no desire for a second encounter with the creepy, humming person.

"I usually trade with people near here, or in the east side of the city. The west side is mostly gang territory, and they're always having huge wars and shit. And it stinks because there's a fuckload of dead bodies that no one's taking care of."

"Have you...known someone who's died here?"

"Yeah. A few people."

"Who were they?"

"Well, when I came here I was ten, and a huge wimp, and a bigger idiot than you are Egbert, and that's saying something. The bunker wasn't mine, it was already there, and the people that lived there took me in. They were pretty great, but, you know, old. They died from the disease shortly after Sollux came. And then there was Aradia."

"Aradia?"

"Yeah. She was Sollux's girlfriend. Arrived shortly after he did. She was nice, a little weird, but they were pretty crazy about each other."

"But shouldn't she still be here then? What happened?"

"Well, I don't exactly know. I wasn't there, I was out one night, I come home and and the furniture is knocked around everywhere, and he's sitting there in the middle of the room, covered in blood, holding her body."

"Oh my god."

"Yeah so I go over and he's obviously flipping out, babbling about something, but he wasn't making any sense, saying it's his fault, saying it isn't. So I finally get him to calm down but then he just went silent. We buried Aradia in our sad little homemade graveyard, and he didn't talk for three days. Finally, the only thing that I could get out of him was that Mindfang was involved."

"Mindfang?"

"She's...I don't even know. Basically she's really bad news. I'm pretty sure she's responsible for half the deaths in this place, she's probably the most famous too. People say all kinds of shit like she can control people's minds, she's magic, she can turn into a spider. Anyways, I don't know what she had to do with Aradia and Sollux, he still won't talk about it."

"Really? After all this time?"

"Yeah. Ever since then he's been a little...off. I mean, he's basically back to normal except for some weird shit he's got going with Zahhak."

"Who's that?"

"He makes stuff. All sorts of stuff, he's sort of an expert in robotics I guess. He supplies mostly robotic limbs which is useful because half the fucking people in this place are missing at least one. It's kind of ridiculous, but he has this whole secrecy thing. He hardly ever comes out in the open, mostly stays in his secret laboratory that hardly anyone knows where it is. Anyways, I kept seeing weird robot parts around the bunker so I finally confronted Sollux about it, and apparently him and Zahhak have sort of a deal."

"Involving what?"

"This sounds crazy as fuck, but I think they're trying to bring back Aradia. Through robotics."

"That sounds crazy as fuck."

"Yeah I don't get it either. I've just been keeping an eye out, making sure everything's cool."

John nodded and looked down at the now crowded streets. It was a lot of information to process. Haven seemed even weirder than before.

"Ok well that's enough just sitting around for kicks," Karkat said. "I'm going out, want to come?"

"Sure," John answered. The two boys slid off the ledge and began the descent back down.


	6. Chapter 6

They slid back through the broken window and down the stairways, John was amazed at how Karkat moved without making a single sound. When asked, Karkat said it was due to years of practice. They got to the bottom floor just in time to see Sollux clamber out of the trapdoor, two backpacks slung over his back. He straightened up, slamming the door and tossed one of the backpacks to Karkat, who started to rummage around in it. Finally, he pulled out a black sweatshirt and handed it to John.

"Put that on. The less people see of your skin, the better." John pulled it on, it actually fit pretty well. Karkat closed the backpack and swung it over his shoulder.

"He's going with you?" Sollux asked.

"Yeah. See ya!" They exited the shop and walked straight ahead to at a fork in the road, Sollux taking the left path and John following Karkat to the right.

He followed Karkat once again through the winding alleyways, though they felt a bit less threatening now.

"We're going to see a friend of mine, and I'll show you around a little bit," Karkat said quietly over his shoulder, and John nodded. Occasionally they passed other trolls, usually just disembodied gold eyes over dark clothes, some of them nodding at Karkat, others ignoring the two of them completely. They moved at a pace sort of halfway between a walk and a jog, taking long but quick strides. Karkat showed no signs of tiring but John, who had never been the greatest athlete back home, was out of breath pretty quickly.

They stopped around twenty minutes later, in front of what used to be a tiny sweet shop. The large front window had a hole in it, it looked like someone had thrown a brick through at some point, but otherwise it looked in pretty good condition. A pole jutted out above the door, it looked like it could have held a swinging sign sometime in the past, but now just held a strip of green fabric tied to it.

Karkat pushed the door open, it squeaked and swung as it was only attached by the top hinge. He passed the door to John, who gingerly shut it behind him. The space was cramped, half dominated by a glass display case that once probably held chocolates. Karkat moved around and behind it, to where there was a circle outlined in the floor. He reached towards it, and found a handle, pulling it up. The trapdoor here was almost identical to the one back at the bunker, wood, heavy and with a ladder reaching down into the black depths. Karkat jumped down, and John, trusting him this time, jumped after. He landed in a crouch, turning to see Karkat's scowl.

"You left the trapdoor open, dumbass," he said, gesturing towards the open hole. John sighed and scaled the ladder, then closed the door and scooted back down.

The tunnel was similar to the one back home too, same support beams, same slight curve.

"Were these tunnels made by the same people?" He asked. Karkat shrugged.

"I'm not sure. They were here when we got here, I asked Kankri about it one time but he said that he didn't know."

"Who's Kankri?"  
"Oh, he was one of the people that lived in the bunker before me, that took me in."

Just then they reached the end of the tunnel, to a door that Karkat knocked on. A small rectangular of wood near the top of the door opened, and through it an eye was visible.

"Hello?" A voice said.

"It's me." Karkat replied. The rectangle closed and the door opened. The troll standing behind it was tall, much taller than Karkat and John, with elegantly cut short hair and a smile on her face. She was wearing a jade green coat over a striped shirt and a long, red skirt.

"Karkat! It's good to see you...who have you got with you?"

"This is John, newbie. He's staying with us at the bunker." He turned back to John. "John, meet Kanaya."

The troll called Kanaya extended her hand, which John shook.

"Come in then, why don't you sit down?" She said, gesturing them inside, bolting the door behind him. John and Karkat stepped inside. It was about half the size of the bunker, but definitely better decorated. The walls were artfully draped with fabric, making up for the lack of windows. There was a small sitting area in the middle with a small couch and several chairs around a glass table. The entire place was lit by white christmas lights strung across the ceiling. A wooden table sat to the right, covered in different clothes, fabrics and what looked like half-finished projects. An archway led to a smaller room, through which John could see a bed and an aging wardrobe.

Karkat sat on the couch, while John settled himself on a small, floral patterned chair.

"Oh, you are new," Kanaya commented, catching sight of John in full light.

"Got here yesterday," He answered.

"Sorry," was all she said. Kanaya went into the next room and came out with a plate of crackers, setting them on the table.

"Sorry, they're kind of stale," she said and John and Karkat both began to eat. Kind of stale was an understatement, John thought as he tried to bite into the cracker, it tasted like woodchips. He didn't say anything out of politeness, but Karkat made a disgusted noise.

"Do you need food? Because we have some, you know."

"You have two cupboards full of packaged noodles."

"Which is better than this." Kanaya rolled her eyes, obviously not very upset.

"So why'd you stop by?"

"Well I was just showing John around, thought you might want to come."

"Oh, ok." She stood up and reached to the right side of her waist, where her skirt buttoned all the way down. Then, with a flourish, she ripped the skirt off. John's eyes bugged, but she was wearing a pair of black skinny jeans underneath.

"Impressive," Karkat said. Kanaya smiled, showing elegant, pointed teeth. She grabbed a beanie off the table, pulling it over her head and managing to coat her lips in green lipstick at the same time. Karkat hit John in the shoulder,

"We're leaving, stop staring." John hastily shook his head and followed Karkat to the door. Kanaya gathered a few things into a small, brown bag which she slung onto her back, and then followed them out the door.

"Where to first?" Karkat asked once they'd gotten back to the sweetshop.

"He's seen enough of the east side, let's introduce him to the princess."


	7. Chapter 7

They walked in a triangle, with John as the awkward third person in the back. Karkat and Kanaya were having a whispered conversation, they made a strange looking pair. Kanaya, who was at least a full foot taller than Karkat, was walking while slightly bent to the side, Karkat kept rising on his tiptoes in order to reach her ear.

Finally, the trio stopped in the middle of a thin, slanting alley. Karkat and Kanaya turned back to face John.

"Ok, so we're going to have to pass by main street, but we're on the least populated part, all the way at the opposite end that you came in." Karkat whispered.

"Basically, don't make any noise, and stick with us," Kanaya added. "We do this a lot."

"Wait," John said. "I thought you said the west side was mostly gang territory? Why are we going there?"

"We're not. We're going to the south but going across main street is the quickest way." John took a deep breath.

"Ok, let's go."

"No talking past this point," Karkat reminded them. "John, you go in the middle."

They quickly got into a close-knit single file line, Karkat leading and Kanaya bringing up the rear. The three of them continued down the alley, until main street was visible. Moonlight shone across the four empty car lanes, making what was left of the reflective paint shine.

Karkat slowly peeked his head out, looking to the left. John held his breath, fervently hoping that whoever chased him earlier was long gone. Karkat pulled his head back and nodded, then, in a flash, he reached back and grabbed John's left hand, Kanaya his right, and sprinted across the street.

John was pulled along, staring at the back of Karkat's hair, turned silver by the moonlight. He glanced to his left and saw a crowd of figures way down the street, but no yellow flares meaning eyes. The entire trip took under fifteen seconds, but it seemed like an eternity before they were back in the inky blackness of the next alleyway. The two trolls on either side of him didn't loosen their grip, or decrease speed; John's arm was almost yanked out of his socket as Karkat abruptly turned, until suddenly he pitched forward. John, who had too much momentum, crashed into him, Kanaya into John, and they all fell in a heap.

They were all silent for a moment, until Kanaya started giggling. John joined in, and Karkat gave a muffled groan.

"Stop laughing and get the fuck off me Egbert," he muttered.

"Sorry!" John replied, and they slowly clambered to their feet.

"What did you trip over?" Kanaya asked.

"Some idiot standing in the middle of the..." Karkat trailed off, staring to the adjoining alley to the left. "...Nitram?" He held up a hand indicating that the other two should wait, then jogged into the alley. After a few seconds he returned, followed by another troll. The first thing John noticed was the horns, they were massive, sticking out the side of his head and extending at least a foot. Other than that he looked normal, he was a bit taller than Karat, his hair cut in sort of a floppy mohawk down the middle of his head.

"Hey guys, sorry, I didn't know it was you," he said, smiling shyly.

"Yeah no problem," Karkat laughed. "This is John by the way. John, this is Tavros." The two greeted each other.

"We're on the way to see the princess, care to join?" Kanaya asked. Tavros shrugged.

"Why not?"

They started walking as a clump again, Karkat and Tavros up front and John and Kanaya in the back. John noticed that Tavros walked strangely, slightly off balance, and there were odd clicking noises every time he took a step. His puzzlement was resolved, however, when Karkat spoke again.

"So how are the new legs treating you?"

"Pretty good. I don't know how Zahhak does it, but they sure as hell work," Tavros laughed, lightly hitting his thigh with his knuckles. There was a metal clang.

"Are they prosthetics?" John asked, even though he was pretty sure they weren't. Prosthetics weren't that advance that you could walk that easily in them.

"Nope, robotics."

"Wow." Technology here was so much more advanced than back home. Kind of strange for a place mostly devoid of electricity and running water, John thought. They walked for a few more minutes in silence, until Karkat asked, in a low voice,

"Did you figure out what happened yet?"

"About what?" Tavros answered.

"The accident causing the literal loss of your legs, dumbass, what else?"

"Oh. Well...it was Mindfang." John heard a sharp intake of breath from Kanaya.

"Shit are you serious?" Tavros nodded.

"She's...she's after me. I don't know why but she didn't know I survived. I-I don't know if she's found out yet." His voice had dropped to barely a whisper. Karkat stopped, and John almost ran into him again.

"Ok," he said. "Change of plan. This shit is serious. You," he addressed Tavros, "Are not coming to see the princess. A fuckload of people go through that area and you need to avoid crowds. You're going to stay with us for a little bit, okay? We're in a sort of underground bunker on the east side."

"I can take him," Kanaya interjected.

"Ok," Karkat said. "Now take this key, it should get you in if Sollux isn't home." He took out a small gold key from inside his jacket and handed it to Tavros, who slipped it in his pocket. "We'll be back in a little bit, stay inside and we'll figure out what to do with you. And don't see Zahhak again, even if he tells you too. Mindfang knows him too, remember." Tavros nodded, then him and Kanaya turned around and started walking back.

John turned back to Karkat, whose expression was worried.

"Is he going to be okay?" John asked. From what he had observed, Tavros seemed perfectly nice. Karkat exhaled.

"I hope so. I don't know what Mindfang has against the kid, he could hardly hurt a fly."

"So who is the princess? Is she like the leader?" John asked, trying to change the subject to something less fear-inducing. Karkat laughed.

"We don't have a leader, we just call her the princess because she's rich as fuck. I mean, her story is kind of messed up but then again everyone's is. So, her mom is this bigshot government official who was in charge of disease control or something. Actually, I don't really know exactly what she did but she had a lot of say about what to do with people with the disease. As you know, people really flipped out when our affliction started, people were killed, everyone became paranoid and a lot of rumors spread that once you caught the disease you were like a zombie, which is obviously untrue. Anyways, she was of kind of the same mindset. She thought that once you contracted the disease, you were less than human, a kind of scrum that should be removed. She almost got immediate extermination upon contraction of the disease legalized, but thankfully that didn't pass as a law. Pretty much the only fucking good thing our government has done about this. So, as a plan B of sorts she came up with the idea for the Haven project. Which is basically throwing us all in a few shit cities and forgetting about us. There's no cure research, only prevention and immunization. Again, that's thanks to her."

"So what does this have to do with the princess then?"

"Well, she had a daughter. And the lady was so paranoid about her contracting the disease that she locked her up inside their huge mansion or whatever. She basically had no contact with anyone for the first few years of her life. But then, she became a teenager, and she started sneaking out without her mom knowing. Since she had been basically imprisoned her whole life once she got out she had zero common sense. So you can guess what happened next."

"She got the disease."

"Yeah. You can imagine how much her mom flipped out. Makes all of our situations seem better I suppose. So anyways the woman had already passed so many laws she was legally obligated to send her daughter to one of the cities. So, she built a huge mansion here and basically tried to imprison her again."

"Did it work?"

"Nah, she overpowered the guards like the first week she was here, so I heard. The mansion is open now, and it has running water and food and shit so its kind of like a sanctuary. Nobody really messes with her because she gives everyone food and lets you take a shower, and also because she carries a hugeass trident wherever she goes."

"Wow."

"Yeah, you can sort of see the top of the building over there." Karkat pointed slightly to the left.

John squinted and he could see the top of a white, dome shaped building.

They walked the rest of the way in silence, John pondering over the story. He had heard of the woman before, the one passing all the laws about treatment of infected people. With a sickened feeling in his stomach, he remembered even agreeing with some of them. It seemed so foreign that he could have ever thought that pushing sick people out of society could ever get rid of the sickness, because, whether he liked it or not, he belonged to a whole new society now.


	8. Chapter 8

The building looked extremely out of place in the decrepit city. It was white, fairly clean and had light streaming from all the windows, making the small light bulb string at the bunker seem pathetic. At the front were double doors, propped open. Inside John could see a lobby, with an assortment of raggedy people sitting around on various expensive looking pieces of furniture. This was the most amount of trolls John had ever seen gathered in one place, he had never felt more exposed with still pale skin. Most of the trolls present looked like they basically lived on the streets, with grimy, ripped clothing and matted hair.

In fact, the only person who wasn't in contrast with the stark cleanliness of the mansion was a teenage boy in kind of ridiculous looking striped pants sitting alone on one of the sofas. He raised his head when Karkat and John entered, his yellow eyes framed by large glasses. John wondered if trolls even needed glasses after their eyes changed. Surely having weird glow-in-the-dark yellow eyes would correct the nearsighted thing. At least, he hoped it would cure his eyes.

The striped pants guy nodded at Karkat, who in return waved his hand in greeting.

"That's Eridan," Karkat muttered out of the side of his mouth as they passed by. "He's ok but Sollux and him have sort of a bullshit rival thing. I try not to get involved."

They passed several closed doors, which Karkat informed John were food storage, then up a large maroon staircase. At the top were another set of double doors, which Karkat pushed open. They were in a hallway, with open doorways on either side of them. They peeked into the one on the right, and saw the back of someone's head, who was sitting on a couch.

"Feferi?" Karkat said, and the head turned. It was a girl, with huge, wavy hair pushed back by pink goggles on her forehead. As soon as she saw them she smiled, showing all twenty or so pointed teeth.

"Hey! I was just talking to Sollux here...who's the new guy?"

John's first impression was that she talked in a way that you could almost hear smiley emoticons in her voice.

"This is John. John, meet Feferi." Feferi waved and grinned again. They entered the room and saw Sollux sitting on the other side of the couch, looking a bit disgruntled. He wasn't wearing his usual heterochromatic glasses, which he seemed never to take off. When he looked up, John was startled to see that he didn't have any whites of his eyes, or irises, or even pupils. One eye was red, the other blue, both completely filled in. Sollux caught John staring, picked his glasses off the side of the sofa and shoved them on his face, muttering that yes, he knew he had weird eyes.

"Yeah, I just brought him down to show him around, and this is kind of the place to be, you know?" Karkat was saying to Feferi. "So what's Captor doing down here anyway?"

"Zahhak won't see me," Sollux answered for himself. "Says the deals off. And I was in the neighborhood so why not?"

"Yeah, well I'm glad you all stopped by! You know if you guys ever need anything just ask okay? And come over more often, it gets lonely with just Eridan sticking around."

"You two doing ok then?" Karkat asked. Feferi shrugged.

"As much as usual."

"Sorry to be rude guests, but we need to head out," Karkat said. "We have a bit of a situation to take care of back home."  
"Yeah, no problem," she replied, "Good to meet you though," she added to John, who smiled back. Karkat led John back out of the room and down the hallway, Sollux jogging to catch up a few seconds later.

"What did you mean about a situation back home?" Sollux asked and they descended the staircase.

"Tavros has Mindfang on his ass. Turns out that's who pushed him in the first place."

"Shit. That's serious."

"Yeah. So I told him he could stay over for a while, try to stay inconspicuous."

"You what?" Sollux said loudly in the middle of the lobby. Several people looked up. He rolled his eyes and grabbed Karkat's arm, pulling him outside quickly.

"Are you an idiot kk? If Mindfang is on his trail, his trail is going to lead her right to us. Wow, great plan you have there, get us all killed instead."

Karkat was looking extremely regretful.

"Fuck. Shit. Sorry. I should've told him to go somewhere else, somewhere hidden..."

"Yeah. You know for a total asshole, sometimes you're a little too nice."

The two were silent for the entire rest of the way back to the bunker. They crossed main street the same way as before, a frightened sprint, and then Karkat led them back through the maze of streets to the old clothing store.

"Home sweet home," Sollux muttered, staring at the creepy array of mannequins scattered around the room and Karkat lifted the trap door. He invited John to jump first, which he did. A whoosh of air later he was crouched on the tunnel floor, but something was slightly different.

"Guys...? The door is open." There were two thumps behind him as Karkat and Sollux landed.

"It's probably just Nitram being an idiot and leaving it open." Karkat said. Him and Sollux stepped ahead of John towards the door.

"It smells like-" Sollux started, then abruptly stopped. "Oh no. Oh shit, no."

Karkat gave a startled gasp, and John moved between them, and his stomach flipped.

It was Tavros, lying directly behind the entryway. His legs were askew, broken, and small gears and shards of metal lay scattered around. His eyes were open, lips slightly parted and a giant hole was in his chest. Out of in oozed brown goo, which gathered around him like a grotesque brown pool. John felt naseous, he had never seen a dead body in his life, let alone one this mangled. He glanced away from it, trying to regain his senses but what met his eyes didn't help in the slightest.

The bunker was mangled, the furniture was knocked over, the cupboards open and contents scattered everywhere. Worse, the walls and floor were splattered with brown goo, as if a horde of children had decided to go fingerpainting in some sort of troll blood. There were hand prints, smears and even bizzare smiley faces, each with eight eyes.

Karkat looked up, groaned and staggered back, banging into the wall of the tunnel and sliding down into a sitting position. John sat across from him, and Sollux next to John. They sat without speaking or looking at each other for several minutes. Finally, John managed to regain use of his vocal chords, and said creakily, "We're fucked, aren't we?" Karkat groaned, bringing his face to his knees.

"Yeah. We're fucked.

**(yes, I have started killing off characters. brace yourself)**


	9. Chapter 9

Kanaya was gone. When the boys had finally stood up, John feeling rather weak-kneed, they'd searched the bunker, and Sollux went to check Kanaya's house. She wasn't there, and there wasn't any of her blood, which Karkat said was a dark green color. That was about all he said the rest of the day. Repeated it a few times, saying that if she was dead there would be blood.

And then came the task of cleaning. Karkat had covered Tavros in one of the old bedsheets, and they sort of rolled him up as best they could, a few gears and chips of metal remained on the ground, which John gathered and disposed of. Sollux hoisted the misshapen bundle over his back as Karkat went to get a few shovels from the other room.

John felt like he was in a trance, slowly going through motions as he accepted a shovel from Karkat and followed the other two out the front door. He had never expected to hand bury anyone in his life, let alone before he got out of middle school.

"Careful!" Karkat hissed as Sollux clambered unsteadily out of the trapdoor hole, the body swinging precariously and a drop of something wet landed on John's face. He cringed. They exited the clothing store and turned right, walking the perimeter to the back, John had never been this way.

It was a short walk, barely five minutes before they reached what probably used to be a very small park or garden. Now however, it was just a large rectangle of dirt, about the size of a house. In the top right corner, several large stones were lain on the ground. John supposed they were a stand-in for grave markers. Karkat led him over, and pointed to five stones lying several feet apart in a row.

"That's Kankri, the white stone, and Latula and Mituna next to him. They lived in the bunker before us, and that's Porrim, she lived in the candy shop before Kanaya." He didn't sound sad exactly, mostly just tired. John didn't ask who was in the fifth grave, he could see that next to it lay several wilting flowers. Besides, Sollux was right behind them and John didn't know if mentioning Aradia would bother him.

Tavros' body was laid next to them, still wrapped in the sheet, which was now speckled in brown.

They put their shovels in the ground a few feet from the edge of Aradia's grave and began to dig.

They were barely half a foot in the ground when John's shoulders started to ache, the shovel seemed to get heavier and heavier each time he lifted it. Karkat and Sollux didn't seem to notice, though, they both moved quickly and efficiently, clearly used to the act of grave digging.

By the time they were finished, they stood in a good-sized hole and John's arms were about to fall off. He was sweaty, covered in dirt and generally uncomfortable. Karkat scrambled out of the hole and picked up the body, heaving it in. Neither John nor Sollux was prepared, the body landed on their heads and then rolled to the side, and one of Tavros' metal legs came of with a crunching sound as he hit the ground.

Karkat made a strangled noise in his throat but didn't curse at them, which was unusual. John, who had jumped backwards when it hit him, was fighting a strange urge to laugh, if it was anything else that had fallen on their heads like that it would be hilarious, but at the moment he just felt like they were the completely wrong people to be burying anyone. Sollux had reached down and straightened the body, then pulled the stained sheet back where it had slipped off.

John picked up the half-leg and tried feebly to reattach it, then just jammed it next to the other one. Sollux and John climbed out of the hole, all three of them picking up the shovels again.

It was far easier putting the dirt back in the ground, they finished quickly, but the stars had begun to fade by the time they patted the mound of dirt flat. Karkat quickly found a large, misshapen stone which they placed at the head of the grave, then all three of them paused.

"Do we...say anything?" John asked tentatively, the first time any one of them had spoken in hours.

"What's the point?" Karkat answered. "I mean, he's dead. His family doesn't give two shits about him anymore and if they did I'm pretty sure no one would want us three to fuck up this burial more than we already have."

And with that the three of them turned away from the graveyard. They walked slowly, until Sollux suddenly hissed. A second later Karkat winced as well. John turned around, he felt fine, but both the other trolls were suddenly bent over, heads down. John suddenly looked up, and saw that the sun had come up while they were walking home. He ran behind Sollux and Karkat and shoved them forward, yelling "Hurry up, go!"

They stumbled and ran, half limping and clearly in pain, then collapsed the minute they entered the doors of the clothing store, and out of the sun. John entered a few seconds later.

"Is it that bad?" He asked to the other two, who were both curled up on the ground. Karkat flipped him off.

"We need to stop doing that," Sollux said through clenched teeth.

"Yeah," said Karkat, slowly moving to his feet. He turned, and John could see red patches covering the back of his neck and arms. Sollux was covered in similar patches, though his had a more yellowish tinge. They dropped down the trapdoor and down the hallway to where the door was still open. All three of them groaned, having forgotten about the massive amounts of blood covering nearly every surface.

By the time the bunker was clean, or at least blood free, John's eyelids were drooping. Karkat and Sollux were sprawled across the sofas, holding water soaked rags to their irritated skin. John traipsed to the other room and into the tiny bathroom and turned on the shower. He had already been warned that the bunker didn't have hot water, but at this point he was too filthy to care.

The cold water still came as a shock, however, and John was unfortunately wide awake by the time he pulled some borrowed clothes on, rinsing his dirt-covered ones in the tub. Reemerging into the main room, he made a beeline for the leftmost bottom bed, and crawled under the covers.

The day had been long and extremely strange, but John was a little freaked out about how calm he felt about everything at the moment. It was strange how quickly one could adjust, he thought, he had just spent the evening burying someone who he had met in the same afternoon, but he wasn't panicking. Should he be?

John rolled over to face the wall, one which still held faint brown smears. Sollux and Karkat were complaining quietly behind him, but at least for the moment John put everything that had happened behind him, and fell asleep.

**(sorry about the wait, i've been trying to do updates every other day but that's not really working out with all the other stuff i have to do at the moment, so expect updates every 3-4ish days. i will finish though, i can tell you that! and thanks so much again for reading/leaving reviews, i write most of this around one in the morning so feedback/criticism is always welcome:D) **


	10. Chapter 10

John was woken early to a faint knocking on the door. He groaned and shifted around, trying to untangle his limbs from the many covers that twisted around him. He could hear Karkat moving above him, and Sollux next to him.

"I swear to god if it's Pyrope again... " Sollux mumbled.

"I told you I haven't seen her in weeks!" Karkat retaliated.

"Yeah, sure."

"Whatever, I'll get it."

John looked up to see Karkat's socked foot dangling in front of his face as he slowly slid out of bed and onto the ground. He padded over to the door and out of John's field of vision. John closed his eyes again, all too eager to sleep for a few more hours. He heard the creak of the door opening, then a moment of silence.

"Oh my god."

John clambered out of bed and turned to face the doorway, then immediately sprinted over. Kanaya was laying in the doorway, clothes ripped, eyes fluttering and skin charred. Karkat and John each grabbed one of her shoulders and half carried, half dragged her over to the couch. The floor shuddered slightly as Sollux jumped down to join them.

If John had thought the burns Sollux and Karkat had gotten looked painful, they were nothing compared to the current state of Kanaya's skin. Her face, neck and arms were raw and bleeding, making her appear completely green. Her mouth was open, lips shriveled from lack of moisture. There was a tear running down the middle of her shirt, and on her pant legs, and her clothes were streaked with dirt, it looked like she had dragged herself along the ground all the way down the dirt tunnel.

"How the hell did you escape?" Karkat asked, sounding thoroughly freaked out. Kanaya groaned, not answering.

Sollux appeared at her elbow with a glass full of water, gently lifting her head and tipping it into her mouth. She drank greedily, water spilling out the side of her mouth and onto the sofa. When the cup was finished she lay back, panting slightly.

"She...didn't kill me," Kanaya said between breaths. "Left me outside...after she stabbed...I was out all day before I woke up."

"Well I don't know why she did that but I'm glad she did," Sollux said, looking concerned. Kanaya didn't answer, her eyes had closed.

"We should get something for her skin..." Karkat said, then left into the second room. Sollux was still staring down at Kanaya, but John could tell he wasn't really looking at her anymore.

"I don't know if this is good news or bad news," he finally said.

"What do you mean?" John asked.

"Well, this could be her saying that she only had it out for Tavros, and that she doesn't care about us, you know? But it could also just mean that she has a thing for Kanaya for some reason."

Karkat returned with several rags doused in cold water, which he draped awkwardly over her forehead and arms, then sank into the second couch, putting his hands to his forehead.

"The only reason," he said to no one in particular, "I liked living in a goddamn hole in the ground is so I could avoid all of this shit! Like, it's hard enough just to get food and crap, we don't need a fucking hitman on our tail." Sollux crossed the room and flopped next to him.

"Right now all we can do is think about this," he said. "Right now let's assume that Mindfang is on our ass. So we have to stop her."

"You can't. There's no fucking way we can stop her."

"We can't. But there's one person who can."

Karkat lowered his hands. "She wouldn't do it. You know the history between the two of them."

"You don't know that. She would do it for you."

Karkat glared at him. "I told you, we're not a thing anymore."

"Yeah with our fucking lives at stake I think it wouldn't hurt to ask."

"Fine. You watch Kanaya." Karkat stood up and went into the other room, coming out a minute later in dark jeans and a black sweatshirt. John motioned to follow him, but Karkat shook his head.

"Sorry kid, but you can't come today. I'm going way far in." And with that he flicked the hood up, nothing visible but a yellow glow of his eyes, then opened the door and disappeared down the tunnel.

"Where's he going?" He asked Sollux.

"Trying to get ahold of an old friend of his, Redglare, but she's pretty hard to find."

John nodded and then yawned, realizing how tired he was. Sollux had spaced out again, staring straight ahead, so John slunk back over to his bed and crawled inside. His last thought before falling asleep again was that he had already begun to think of the hole in the wall with blankets as his own bed.

After what seemed like two minutes, but was actually a little over an hour, John was awoken yet again by Sollux shaking his shoulder. John blinked his eyes open to the blurry view of Sollux already dressed.

"Hey, Egbert I have to leave for a little bit. Kanaya's still sleeping so just keep an eye on her until she wakes up, ok? I should be back in an hour or so." John nodded and rubbed his eyes, but by the time he removed his hands, Sollux had left.

John got up and got dressed, pulling on what he assumed were some of Sollux's clothes left out for him. He really needed to get new clothes, but doubted that there were that many vendors left. Maybe Kanaya could make something for him, her house looked like she always was making stuff.

There was a knock on the door. Was Karkat back already? No, he wouldn't knock. For a moment John froze, fearing that it was Mindfang at the door, but dismissed that. What kind of murderer knocked? And besides, she stole the key off Tavros' body. That thought didn't make him feel entirely better, but it did make him go and answer the door.

He opened it a crack to see a female troll standing there.

"Hey," She said. "I'm a friend of Karkat's, he told me to come here." John looked at her. She was taller than him, with long and rather messy hair. Her horns were much taller than Karkat's or Sollux's, one was identical to Kanaya's, and the other shaped a bit like a claw. She was dressed casually, a blue coat thrown over a black shirt and jeans.

"Are you Redglare?" He asked. He couldn't see any red on her besides her shoes, but maybe the name referenced something else. She smiled, showing glistening, razor sharp teeth. Looking closer, John could see that something was off about her left eye, she seemed to have more than one pupil.

"Yep," she answered.

"Where's Karkat?"

"He had to see someone, he told me to come ahead."

"Oh, okay. Why don't you come in and wait?" He opened the door, gesturing her inside and suddenly feeling more at ease. Sollux had said that Mindfang wouldn't hurt them as long as Redglare was around.


	11. Chapter 11

Redglare entered the room, and stopped when she saw Kanaya, still passed out on the couch.

"What happened to her?"

"Mindfang left her out in the sun, I think." Redglare nodded and looked serious.

"Well that won't be a problem for much longer."

"Yeah, thank you for doing this by the way."

"No problem," she smirked. "I know Mindfang very well." She crossed the room and settled herself on the couch.

"Is that your real name?" John asked, curious. She laughed.

"Redglare? No, it's a stage name. Kind of stupid, actually, but now I can't shake it. Sounds intimidating though. My real name is Vriska."

"I'm John. Nice to meet you." He walked over and joined her on the couch, sinking down slightly.

"You're new right? How long ago did you get here?"

"Just a few days ago." Had he really only been here a few days? Time seemed to pass so much slower than before. Or at least more things had been happening.

"Wow, well you seem to be adjusting quickly. And you won't look weird for long, trust me."

"Yeah, Karkat told me."

"I bet he did! He loves it, to talk your damn ear off."

"Yeah..." John replied, feeling suddenly uncomfortable. The tone of voice she was taking didn't sound kind or joking at all.

"You seem quieter, though. I like you." She stared intently at him.

"Um, thanks?" John shifted, trying to think of a way that he could ask her to leave without being rude.

"I was going to kill you, you know. But now I don't think I will." She smiled, her eyes glinting dangerously.

"Wait, what?" John said, sure he hadn't heard her clearly.

"I said, I don't think I'll kill you after all, you're cute." John rose from the couch, his eyes wide.

"Wh..." He started backing away, but Vriska rose to a standing position. She was quite a bit taller than him, looking down and examining her nails, which had been filed to sharp points.

"You might have guessed," she said, looking up and baring her fangs again. "But I'm not Redglare."

She moved faster than John could react, advancing on him and sliding her leg around the back of his knees, causing him to topple helplessly forward. She pushed him back and kneeled, her knee planted on his chest and pressing his chest down into the hard floor. He flailed and tried to arch his back up, but her hands moved like bullets, catching his wrists and planting them into the floor.

"Good," she smiled. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Are you...Mindfang?" John said, struggling for breath.

"Wow," she said mockingly, "Nothing gets past you, does it? You're lucky you're pretty." The pressure on his chest decreased as she sat back on his abdomen and let his wrists go. John didn't make an attempt to free himself, he already knew it was futile. Vriska didn't speak for a moment, just sort of stared into space.

John supposed she was beautiful, in a strange, deadly kind of way. When she didn't have that creepy smile on.

She turned back to him, about to say something else when they heard Kanaya's cough from the couch. Vriska's eyes went wide and she turned to her left to see Kanaya's stirring form. Seemingly forgetting about John, she stood up and walked slowly over, kneeling by Kanaya's head.

John scrambled backward, behind the second couch. From around the side, he could see that Kanaya's eyes were now open, the girls' faces were only a few inches apart. They were holding a whispered conversation, John couldn't pick up any of it, but after a few more seconds, Vriska stood up and abruptly left, leaving the door of the bunker swinging and not giving John a second glance.

After a good two minutes of being frozen in place, John finally stood up on shaky legs and checked on Kanaya, whose eyes were closed again. Just then Sollux came walking through the door, soaking wet and shaking rain out of his hair.

"Sup Egbert, why's the door open?"

John only stared, trying to find his voice. Sollux removed his glasses and wiped the raindrops off, looking up again.

"M-mindfang."

"What?"

"She was here."

Sollux stared at him, looking skeptical. "Yeah, she killed Tavros."

"No I mean like ten minutes ago."

"What? How come you're still alive then?"

"She said she...liked me. And that she was going to kill me but then she decided not to but then Kanaya woke up and she went over and started talking to her and she had pinned me down and then-"

"Whoa there Egbert, calm down." Sollux held his hands out. "Ok what happened, slowly."

"She came in, said she was Redglare, sat on me, talked to Kanaya and then left."

"She said she was Redglare? And you believed her?"

"Hey, I don't know what she looks like." Sollux exhaled.

"Well, when you see her the name will make sense. We should wait for Karkat to get back and then decide what to do. You hungry?"

"Yeah," John replied, settling down on the couch while Sollux wandered towards the oven. "Where were you, by the way?" He asked, turning around. Sollux shook his head.

"Doesn't matter."

He returned a few minutes later with steaming noodles that John figured came from the dark blue ramen flavor. They ate in silence, aside from slurping occasionally.

"Why are your eyes like that?" John finally asked, seeing that Solux still hadn't put his glasses back on. The question, among numerous others, had been bugging him for a while.

"I don't know. It just kind of happened."

"You can see though, right?"

"Not very well. And hardly in the dark, I never got the whole glowing eyes thing."

"So you can't see outside?"

"Sort of, I guess. But I can still get around easily enough, I've been here a long enough time to know all the routes."

"How old were you? When you were diagnosed, I mean."

"Eleven. It was the first time anyone had really paid attention to me, I guess. No one liked me before because of the way I talked or whatever, but as soon as the light flashed red it was all like 'oh no' and 'I'm so sorry'. Total bullshit. They got me at school, and then kept me in a locked room for two days."

"They didn't do that to me."

"Yeah, I guess it was different a few years ago. They were still trying to figure out more stuff about it, so they took all these samples and tests and shit. I didn't see my parents or anyone again. And then after all that, they just dumped me on the truck and left me here."

"Were you mad?"

"You kidding? Yeah, I was mad. I spent the best part of two years trying to make this place less shitty for everyone who lived here, getting electricity and running water and getting that fucking ancient oven to work, but by the time I finally got everything working, everyone but Karkat was dead. We're all fucking time bombs, ticking away, and then dropping right in order. Except if you just get killed outright. I sometimes think it would almost be better to just-" He broke off, looking down at his food again.

John wondered what the whole 'right in order' part meant, but he didn't inquire further, Sollux looked like he was done talking for now.

They finished in silence, Sollux taking the bowls and stacking them by the oven, to be washed in the shower later. He said he was working on trying to make a sink, but it was a long project and he kept getting interrupted with shit like this. John assumed he was talking about Mindfang.

Another half hour had passed before Karkat strode inside, soaking wet.

"Who left the fucking door open?"


	12. Chapter 12

Sollux walked over and quickly explained the situation to Karkat, whose eyes bugged out in response.

"Here? Like here, here?" He looked over at John for conformation, who nodded.

"Ok, no. Fuck this, we are not spending another minute in this hole."

"Where would we go?" John asked.

"Kanaya's," Karkat replied.

"Isn't Redglare with you?" Sollux asked. Karkat shook his head.

"Nah, she said she would come by when she wanted. She can find us easily." He moved to the side room and came back with several beat-up backpacks, which he chucked at Sollux and John. Sollux gestured for John to pack food while Sollux started throwing clothes into his. John strode over to the cabinets over the oven, he could hear Karkat trying to wake Kanaya up behind him. He opened them to find, to no surprise, they were overflowing in packets of ramen. He stuffed as many packs as he could in the backpack, then zipped it up, hearing the crunch of dry noodles breaking.

He turned back and saw that Karkat had persuaded Kanaya to her feet, though she was still leaning heavily on him.

The three of them left quickly, Sollux passcode locking the non-portable computers and shutting the lights off as they left.

The journey to Kanaya's was slow and anxiety-inducing, every shadow seeming to appear as Mindfang's silhouette. They arrived safely, however Kanaya was being half-dragged in by Sollux and Karkat. They re-entered her overwhelmingly green room and laid her on the bed.

"We're safe here. As far as I know Mindfang doesn't know where Kanaya lives," Karkat said after they had dumped their stuff in a corner and settled on the couch.

"But she knew her." John said quietly, still not feeling like talking. Karkat looked concerned.

"I don't know what that was about, Kanaya had never mentioned knowing her." John nodded, exhausted. It wasn't even midnight yet and he had already had a run-in with a serial killer.

Sollux sighed and kicked at one of the many green carpets adorning the floor.

"This sucks. When the hell did you say Redglare was going to help?"

"I don't know. She just said when she felt like it. I wasn't going to press her in case she changed her mind. Hopefully she'll show up in a day or two."

A day passed. Nothing. Then two, three, seven, thirteen whole days passed before there was any sign of the mysterious Redglare. On the fourth day John woke to several grey patches on the back of his right hand. He held it in front of his face and stared for several seconds, trying to suppress the nauseating feeling that squirmed in his stomach. After about a minute, he quickly got out of bed and ran into the other room, shoving his arm in Karkat's face, who replied with something along the lines of "Congratulations dipshit, you're a man now" and then rolled over back to sleep.

Kanaya recovered quickly, the gruesome burn marks becoming fainter and fainter by each day, until all that remained were slight distorted patches of skin. Tension was running a little high at the candy shop, mostly because of the fact that there were four people staying over and only two beds. Kanaya kept hers, Karkat instantly leaped on the other one when they arrived, leaving John and Sollux to wrestle over who got the couch. Sollux won.

By the seventh day John's entire hand was grey, and he noticed a small patch on his face. He tried to act like it wasn't a big deal. Near the end of the two-week long stretch, all four of them tried to spend as least time in the candy shop as possible, but most of all Sollux. During the last week he was hardly seen at all, only to occasionally drop by for meals and for a few hours of rest. When asked where he was constantly disappearing to, he would just shrug and shake his head. Karkat and Kanaya knew better than to pester him, when the older boy didn't want to share something, no one would ever hear it.

John, who had taken to spending long hours alone on the roof of a nearby apartment building, was more focused on himself. By the tenth day both of his hands had filled in and the grey patches were advancing up his arm. He started avoiding mirrors, ducking his head every time he went into Kanaya's room to try to avoid freaking out. He was trying hard to pass this new development off as no big deal, but to be honest it was terrifying him. He had tried to distract himself by climbing, the apartment building roof could only be accessed by scaling the many ramshackled terraces, but that meant he was constantly looking at his alien-like hands.

His new skin was rougher, a bit like sandpaper, and the hair on his arms had become much more sensitive, standing on end at the slightest sound of a footstep. He now understood how quickly and soundlessly Karkat and the other trolls moved in the dark, it was a natural reflex when your body told you there was something nearby.

And so, two weeks later John lounged on the roof, his back flat and legs dangling haphazardly off the edge.

"Hey! Egbert!" John sighed and sat up, pushing his hair out of his face. Kanaya had been the only one to call him by his first name this whole time. He leaned over the edge to see Karkat standing on a rusty terrace several stories down.

"What?" He called down.

"She's here."

That could mean one of two things, John thought, but the lack of panic in Karkat's voice pointed towards Redglare being the 'she'. He slid off the edge, landing in a crouch on the closest balcony.

Karkat sighed, visibly annoyed that he had to make the four-story journey to get John's attention, and started back down. John followed, mirroring his smooth movements. Hand on the handrail, flip the legs over, swing down in an arc, let go, repeat. Descending was much quicker, he made it down in under ten minutes, then followed Karkat back to the candy store.

She appeared as a tall, slim silhouette, leaning casually against the window of the candy store. She turned when she heard the two approach, her eyes blocked by angled red glasses, reflecting the moonlight. She grinned, her mouth opening far wider than John expected it to, her neatly pointed fangs glinting silver.

"Is this the new kid you wanted to show me? He smells great!"

"Don't lick him," Karkat muttered and pushed past her to enter the store. Redglare wasn't that much taller than John, but she seemed to dwarf him all the same. She was dressed in teal and red, and clutching a white and red dragon-headed cane behind her back. John couldn't see her eyes through the glasses, but the skin around them was oddly discolored. She gestured that he should enter first, which he did. She followed closely behind him, John could hear her breathing deeply and shuddered slightly. He opened the trapdoor and jumped down, then turned around but he did not hear her land.

"You coming or not?" A voice said from behind him. He jumped and turned, and there she was, halfway down the tunnel. He followed and entered, the fairy lights strung across the ceiling throwing his patchy skin into focus. Karkat was sitting alone in the middle of the couch, Sollux and Kanaya were nowhere to be found.

Redglare inhaled deeply and crossed the room, settling on a green patterned chair. John sat next to Karkat.

"So," she said. "You said you needed me to kill Mindfang?"

"...yeah." Karkat replied. Redglare looked disgruntled.

"You know our history as well as anyone."

"Yeah, that's why I thought you could…"

"It's more complicated than that." John knew he was missing out on a huge part of the story but felt that it wasn't the time to ask.

"Terezi she is going to kill us. All of us. Well, not Kanaya I guess, or maybe not John but I know she is going to kill me. It's only a matter of time. Please tell me you don't value her life more."

"You know I don't. But I'm not just a random hitman. I take out the bad guys, the ones that really deserve it. I restore justice."

"She killed Tavros. And tons of other people, I mean look what she did to you!"

"I can't."

"That's my fucking point. It-"

"Let's talk later ok? I'll think about it. But I want to hear about this new kid! Who are you?" She turned to stare at John.

"That's John. He's only been here a couple weeks."

"You don't smell very grey."

John had no clue how to respond to that.

"Thanks…?"

"No problem!" She was silent for a moment.

"Is that why you're called Redglare?" He asked.

"Is what?"

"Your glasses."

"These? Oh, no." She grinned again, and then lowered her glasses. John visibly recoiled, but he knew that she didn't notice. The discolored skin he had noticed around her glasses earlier was, in fact, scar tissue. White scars covered the entirety of her upper face, crisscrossing and distorting her skin. That wasn't anything, however, compared to her eyes. Her eyelids were gone, or otherwise fused to the skin around her eye socket, leaving her eyes wide and permanently open. They were a deep red, not unlike one of Sollux's, but unlike his, they were not smooth and glassy. Her eyes were mottled and crusted, no pupil, iris or white visible. They were sunken back in her head,like scabs in place of eyeballs. The left eye had a large dent, making her overall appearance grotesque. Thin cracks were visible in them, and out of each trickled a tiny bit of tar black substance, which slowly made its way to pool in her lower eye socket.

"H-how?" He asked weakly.

"Childhood skirmish," she answered. "But I have a better way of seeing now. By the way, where's Sollux? He's usually skulking around you." She addressed Karkat.

"I don't know. He's become really fucking shady lately."

"I smelled him over by the mansion the other day."

"Fuck, really?"

"Yeah! I don't know what he keeps doing over there but I can guess," She smiled provocatively.

"Wait, you think that him and-?"

"Yeah!" She laughed. Were they talking about Feferi? John wondered. The two of them did seem close when he was there, but he had been under the impression that Sollux wasn't over Aradia yet.

"Well this has been nice," Terezi said, "But I can't stay for long. Duty calls."

"Wait, you're leaving already? We waited two weeks!"

"I said I'll think about it. And nice to meet you John! Hopefully we will see eachother soon."

And with that she stood and exited so quickly that neither John nor Karkat had enough time to even open their mouths.

"I can't believe her," Karkat said, collapsing back on the couch.

"You two had a thing?" John asked, remembering Sollux's comment from a few weeks ago. He couldn't help but chuckle at the thought, Terezi was so commanding.

Karkat blushed, "Don't remind me."

John stood up and left the room, heading back up the ladder and out the candy shop. He walked the half block to the crumbling apartment building and started climbing up, but knew that unfortunately he could never achieve the same comfortable position as before.

After about twenty minutes of climbing he was about to flop down again, when he spotted someone in a dark hoodie far below. After a second of squinting, he saw that, to his surprise, it was Sollux, whom he hadn't seen in two days.

He was walking backwards, and he wasn't alone. There was another figure, one John only vaguely recognized from his brief visit to the mansion. The kid was wearing a ridiculous purple outfit, but was toting across his back what was unmistakably a large gun. The two of them seemed to be having some sort of argument, Sollux had stopped backing up and was tensed. Their body language was hostile, and John wondered if he should intervene.

He jumped back down to the highest balcony and peered over the edge. The two had started slowly circling, still shouting at each other.

Fast as lightning, the kid in purple whipped the machine gun around and pointed it directly at Sollux's chest.

**((hey guys, sorry again for the pause. school is starting in about a week for me so theres a lot of crap to get done before that (like that freaking ap assignment) so yeah, i've been a bit busy but this is a longer chapter so i hope it makes up for it! to that person that asked earlier, a beanie is a little knit hat. see you soon!)) **


	13. Chapter 13

John knew he was too far up for them to hear him, so he lept into action, swinging over the side of the railing. His feet hadn't even touched down on the concrete before he heard the gunshot. His stomach lurched as he landed in a crouch and turned slowly around, expecting to see Sollux lying on the pavement.

However, as he squinted down into the blackness of the street, a different scene met his eyes. Sollux was on his knees, a girl draped over him. Her hands were clasped to her chest, head down, facing towards Eridan, as if to protect Sollux from him. She was wearing a white shirt that John could see was rapidly becoming fuchsia. He recognized her, as the peppy, sweet girl that Karkat had introduced him to a few weeks ago. She must have run between them, John thought, a pit growing in his stomach. Sollux had his arms around her, his hands moving to cover hers, his face buried in her hair.

Eridan had not moved, but the gun had fallen from his hand and onto the pavement. He didn't seem to notice.

John felt his knees slowly give way as he slid to the ground, pressing his face forward against the rusty bars of the balcony to see. Sollux was rocking back and forth, slowly, Feferi's hands fluttering against her chest. The blood had covered the front of her shirt and was running down her side in small rivers, pooling on the dark ground.

And then, as quickly as it had happened, it was over. Sollux lifted Feferi's body gently off his lap and stared at it. Eridan seemed to come out of a daze and slowly turned, walking back towards where they both had come. He made it barely five steps before Sollux was upon him, tackling him to the pavement and starting to throw punches. He was yelling something intelligible as the two boys wrestled and fought, until suddenly Eridan reached for something in his jacket, moving too fast for John to see, but half a second later Sollux started screaming.

John was eleven stories up, but he heard the strangled yell loud and clear. Without a second thought, he lept up and over the edge of the railing, trying to get to the ground as quick as possible. The screaming didn't stop until John was two stories from the ground, he didn't know what was happening, didn't have time to spare even a backward glance.

Several frantic seconds later John's sneakers hit the pavement and he spun around. Eridan was gone and Sollux was curled up on his side, surrounded by a pool of mustard yellow blood.

John darted past Feferi's body to kneel by Sollux. His hands were pressed over his face, covered in blood and he was whimpering softly. John's breath was coming quickly, he didn't know what condition Sollux was in and he knew he couldn't lift him by himself.

"KARKAT!" John yelled, straining his voice as he raced towards the candy shop.

"John?" He skidded to a stop to see Kanaya exiting an alleyway in front of him, looking concerned. "What's wrong?"

"Sollux-he-I need help, come on!" John said quickly, sprinting back towards the apartment building. Kanaya followed, looking confused but matched his pace nonetheless.

"Oh my god," said Kanaya, before John could even see the bodies through the darkness. She ran straight to Sollux and immediately hoisted him to his feet by his left elbow, John grabbing his right. He cried out but still didn't remove his hands from his face. Blood was dripping down his chin and running down the front of his shirt.

Together the three of them stumbled down the dark street, Kanaya and John focusing on moving as fast as they could. Sollux's hands were still firmly clasped onto his face by the time the candy shop came into view, and standing outside of it, looking confused, was Karkat. He quickly being replaced by pure terror. He held the door open for the three of them to stumble in, at a loss for words.

After the short but difficult trapdoor ordeal, they had hauled Sollux into Kanaya's house, laying him down on the couch. Sollux was panting, his hands firmly pressed over his eyes and groaning every few seconds

"What happened?" Karkat asked weakly, staring down at Sollux.

"Eridan. He killed Feferi too and then-I don't know what he did, I couldn't see." Karkat shook his head and looked at Kanaya.

"What do we do?"

"We have to figure out what's wrong with him. Get him on the table, I'll be right back."

Karkat and John ran over to the large, wooden table in the corner of the room, sweeping the piles of fabric and half-finished clothing off the edge in a big pile. Karkat lifted Sollux's upper body, while John grabbed his feet, and they shuffled over and set him down as gently as they could on the flat surface. Kanaya returned with a bright lamp, which she sat by his head.

"We need to get his hands away from his face-Karkat, can you—" Karkat reached over, a hand on each wrist, and yanked them both away. Sollux screamed again, but Karkat pulled his hands to his sides and pinned them down.

Karkat made a horrified noise as he looked up at Sollux's face, Kanaya's eyes widened. Sollux's face was the last place John wanted to look right now, but even so he found himself peering over Karkat's shoulder. He could taste bile in the back of his throat. Blood covered Sollux's face, trickling down his cheeks like golden tears and falling into his gaping mouth, all of it coming from his eyes. Or what used to be his eyes. He had half expected them to look like Terezi's, crusted and dented, but instead they were gone.

Gone was the wrong word, it would imply a clean, black, empty eye socket. A sliver of Sollux's blue eye remained intact, the rest of it was piled in chunks and slivers. One piece was hanging out, dipping down towards his chin, still attached by a string of flesh. His red eye was in pieces, several of them seemed to have fallen out, so small black holes littered the crisscross of red chunks. Sollux strained, trying to break free of Karkat's grasp, John was horrified as to how he could still be conscious, looking like he did.

Kanaya was very still, staring down at the struggling boy with the broken eyes.

"I need to get them out," she said quietly.

"Wh..?" Karkat breathed.

"His eyes don't work anymore. I can't leave them in there. They'll get infected, it would kill him."

"You can't possibly…we don't have anything that would work…"

Kanaya's jaw was clenched.

"John, can you please go and boil some water. Karkat, try to keep him calm."

John walked unsteadily away from the table towards Kanaya's camping stove on the other side of the room.

"No. Fuck no we are not doing this, we don't have any fucking drugs or equipment it'll kill him."

"Karkat we don't have a choice. I'm not letting him die of another fucking infection of all things."

"And if he dies during the process?"

"Then I'll know that at least I tried to save his life!" John had never seen Kanaya riled up before, she looked angry extremely dangerous.

Karkat exhaled sharply but ceased arguing, turning back to Sollux. Kanaya disappeared to her room, and John could hear drawers opening and closing. She reappeared a few minutes later with several towels and small tools clutched in her hand. She laid each down on the table and pulled up a stool next to Sollux's head. Karkat groaned again, looking at the array of objects she had procured.

Sewing scissors, several needles, tweezers, a kitchen knife, a fork and a spoon lay on the graying towel.

"We don't have anything better." Kanaya snapped before Karkat could speak. There was a bubbling sound, the pot had come to a boil. Kanaya got the pot and carried it over, then carefully dipped each of the tools in the heated liquid.

"It should sterilize them a bit. Now," she said, addressing John and Karkat, "This part is not going to be pleasant for anyone. I need both of you to hold him down. John, come to this side of the table. Karkat has his arms, so I need you to hold his head steady." John nodded shakily and moved to the right side of the table. Kanaya lifted the graying towel from under the tools and then shoved in Sollux's mouth, effectively silencing him.

John moved his hands on either side of Sollux's head, keeping it steady. Kanaya was taking several deep breaths. Karkat looked like he was about to either kick the table over or cry and couldn't decide which. John still felt nauseous. Sollux had stopped squirming and lay still. Kanaya picked up the tweezers, slowly bringing them towards the former blue eye. She moved slowly, but her hands were steady. She brought it down and had barely touched the bit of dangling eye when Sollux arched violently, his back flipping up and head turning to the side. Kanaya's arm recoiled.

"John!" She yelled, "Keep his head steady!" There was a muffled yelling through the gag. John took a deep breath and positioned his hands back, Karkat and climbed up onto the table and was digging his knee into Sollux's chest while maintaining the grip on his wrists.

Her hand retraced the path, when she touched the eye John strained his muscles, fighting Sollux's urge to snap his head and kept it steady. He averted his eyes to what Kanaya was doing, instead focusing on his own task.

Sollux's torso twisted and shook, jostling Karkat side to side, but he managed to keep him relatively still. Every time Sollux cried out Karkat flinched, as if the pain was being inflicted on his own body as well. Kanaya wore a cold mask of determination, her eyes never straying from her own hands.

It was by far the worst experience in John's life. Even seeing a girl murdered in cold blood had no compare, there was no way to describe the agonizing few hours that followed. Bit by bit, struggle by struggle, Kanaya cleared and cleaned the blue eye. John's muscles protested, but fear and adrenaline kept the grip on the boy's head strong.

Sollux still struggled every time an instrument touched him, but his responses were becoming weaker. Karkat was biting his lip so hard a trickle of blood ran down his chin, and John was just hoping that it would be over, and done until hallway through the cleaning of the red eye Sollux abruptly shuddered and went still. Kanaya paused, her hand halfway to his eye, in surprise. Karkat gave a sharp intake of breath, then immediately pressed his ear down to Sollux's chest. After a few seconds he sat back up.

"He's alive." John exhale in relief, and turned back. The operation went quicker from there on out, John only having to maintain a loose grip to keep Sollux's head straight, and Karkat sliding off the table to collapse in one of the chairs, but still not letting go of one of Sollux's wrists.

And then it was over. The yellow stained chunks of flesh lay in a pile on the old wood table. The gag was removed from Sollux's mouth and the blood washed off his face. His eye sockets were black holes, empty and vacant.

John wanted to cry, puke and scream all at the same time. He walked over to the couch, his legs trembling violently, and then collapsed onto it, curling up and pressing his face down into the cushion. He felt the tears come, hot and wet, sliding around his face down the smooth material of the sofa. Someone put a blanket on him, but he didn't raise his face from the comforting blackness.

Kanaya walked unsteadily back towards her room, waves of exhaustion washing over her. She never wanted to see so much as a paper cut again. She fell asleep before she was aware of reaching her bed, physically and mentally drained.

Karkat didn't move from his position next to the table. He fell asleep with his head in his arms, his legs draped haphazardly over the stool, and one hand still clutching the wrist of his best friend.

(**so im not entirely happy about how this chapter turned out but its been a while since the last update, i'll probably go back and edit it at some point.)**


	14. Chapter 14

John stirred. He blinked his eyes blearily open to find that his face was still firmly planted in the corner of the couch cushions. He slowly sat up, his face sticky with dried tears. John quickly tried to rub them off before anyone noticed, but the room was silent aside from quiet breathing. He turned to his left and saw the fuzzy image of Karkat slumped over the table, asleep.

After a moment of scrambling to find his glasses, which had drifted between the couch cushions, his vision sharpened and he saw that Sollux remained motionless, in the same position that they had left him in.

He heard soft footsteps from behind him, he turned around and saw Kanaya tiptoeing out of her room, buttoning a long, black coat. When she saw him staring she froze, her eyes wide. John blinked but didn't say anything, confused as to why Kanaya looked so startled. She carefully lifted a finger to her lips, then indicating Karkat's sleeping form with a jerk of her head. John nodded and sank back down to lay against the various throw pillows scattered around the couch. Kanaya crossed the room, grabbed something that was standing by the door, quickly concealing it in her jacket and left.

Karkat woke less than a minute later, shaking his head groggily.

"You up?" He croaked to John.

"Yeah. How is he?"

"I don't know. Are you hungry or anything?"

"No."

"Yeah me neither."

John slid off the couch and slumped on the floor, his head hanging down. His arms were crossed in front of him and he did what he had been trying to avoid and studied them closely. There were only two spots that his original pigment remained, but even those patches had seemed to grow smaller overnight. His fingernails were slightly thicker, and, as far as he could tell, had darkened.

"You okay?" A voice asked from asked from John's left. He looked up to see Karkat standing over him. The troll then sat down next to John, curling his knees up to his chest. John shrugged.

"Yeah me neither."

"Is he gonna be okay?"

"I think so. He's gonna be pissed for sure but I think we can handle it."

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"I was right there, I could've, I should've-"

"No. Don't beat yourself up about it, it already happened. Besides, you probably would have gotten killed if you had gone down there earlier. No one blames you okay? It's just another shit thing that happened in our crazy little world."

"They keep happening."

"Yeah, I know, you can never catch a fucking break without someone being stabbed in a clichéd dark alleyway."

"It's stupid."

"Yeah." John groaned and stood up, his clothes wrinkled and smeared with dirt, then walked into the bathroom, leaving Karkat sitting against the couch. He didn't mean to be rude, but John was feeling overwhelmingly guilty and didn't want to talk.

Kanaya's bathroom was a tiny room blocked off by an old mildew-covered shower curtain. The shower itself was nothing more than a large, metal basin and a shower head strung up on the ceiling. In the middle of the basin was a drain, that was there when Kanaya had arrived and no one knew where exactly it went. Sollux had singlehandedly gotten the running water working again for a small part of the city, it wasn't extremely clean but it was good enough.

He turned the lever and water began sputtering out, banging against the tin of the basin. He peeled off the shirt he was wearing, it was black with a yellow symbol of the roman numeral two. It wasn't his, but he no longer cared, him, Karkat and Sollux kind of shared clothes interchangeably now. John looked up, then almost jumped, as it seemed someone else had entered the bathroom.

He inhaled shakily, and again met his own eyes in the mirror that was hung on the wall. His face was entirely grey. He barely recognized himself, he felt like a stranger in his own body. His eyes were still blue behind the clear lenses of his glasses, but he knew they wouldn't be for long.

His lips were darker than his face, but only slightly. He had been expecting it to happen, but he couldn't help but feel a certain sense of finality. There was no going back now. Even by the strange, miraculous change that he somehow escaped this place, he could never go back to his old life. His breathing started to quicken, he closed his eyes.

Inhale. Count to three. Exhale. Count to three. Inhale. It's fine.

After seventeen carefully regulated breaths John turned away from the mirror and back to the shower. He pulled the rest of his clothes off and stepped in, cringing at the temperature. He had gotten used to cold showers, but it didn't mean he enjoyed them.

When he had endured as much as he could, he stepped out, shutting the water off and grabbing one of the fraying towels, determinately staring at the ground. He exited to Kanaya's room, shuffling through the large pile of clothes by the side of her bed until he found a few things that looked like they fit him.

He walked back into the living room, towel slung around his shoulders.

"Karkat?"

"Yeah?" Karkat was back over by the table, sitting in the stool again.

"How long have I...been like this?"

"Hm?" John gestured to his face.

"Oh..a few days. You didn't seem like you wanted to think about so I didn't say anything." John nodded.

Just then, Sollux shifted and groaned. Both Karkat and John jumped. Sollux blinked a few times, his eyelids collapsing slightly inward when closed, then bit his lip.

John and Karkat exchanged a panicked glance. Did he realize? Could he remember what had happened? John jerked his head to show that Karkat should speak first, who narrowed his eyes as if to say What the everloving fuck am I supposed to say in this situation? John indicated that he should just Suck it up and get on with it! and Karkat cleared his throat.

"Um..." he started.

"I know." Sollux answered. John and Karkat exchanged another look.

"This is kind of a stupid question but how are you feeling?"

"How you would expect. Can I get off this goddamn table now? I want to fucking sleep on something that isn't a shit piece of wood."

"Yeah, yeah of course." Sollux sat up slowly and slid off the table, stumbling to the side. Karkat jumped forward and caught him, hoisting him back up by his arm.

He guided Sollux to the couch, keeping a tight grip on his arm the whole time. Sollux flopped on the couch, turned over, and was asleep a few seconds later. Karkat stayed, staring down at him for a few more seconds before moving to the campstove in the corner of the room. He put up a pot of boiling water and ripped open a few packs of instant oatmeal.

"Where's Kanaya?" He asked.

"I don't know. I saw her leave early this morning." Karkat stiffened. He got up, abandoning the steaming pot and ran towards the door, looking to one side of it.

"Why can't anything ever go smoothly!" he snarled, stomping back.

"What is it?"

"Her chainsaw's gone. I think I know where she went."

"What do we do?"

"I don't know, go after her I guess? I didn't think much of Eridan before but.." He gestured to Sollux's sleeping form.

"I'll go find her, you need to stay and watch him," John said.

"What? You'll get lost twenty feet out the door. You've barely been here a month remember?"

The door banged open, interrupting the brief argument. John and Karkat both turned, John's mouth fell open.

Kanaya was framed in the doorway, a chainsaw in her left hand. Her coat was ripped and hanging in shreds, and purple blood was splattered violently across her entire body, staining her clothes and streaked in her hair. She smiled, blood dripping off her elegant fangs and eyes gleaming.

"Good news," she smirked. "Bastard's dead."


	15. Chapter 15

"YOU CUT HIM IN HALF?!"

"That's what I said."

"In half? Half?"

Kanaya sighed, throwing down the chainsaw and extracting herself from the shredded jacket. "Yes."

"Well at least he didn't have any friends," Karkat said, half to himself.

"No one knows I did it," Kanaya retorted.

"Thanks, by the way," mumbled Sollux from the sofa. Kanaya paused, eyebrows raised, clearly not expecting him to be conscious.

"It needed to be done." She dumped her coat on the now vacated table and disappeared into the bathroom.

"So," Karkat said, turning to John. "We might as well go out, we're almost out of food."

"Ok," John replied, scanning the room for his hoodie.

"You ok staying here? Kanaya's in the other room." Karkat said, leaning down.

"Yeah, whatever."

"Ok cool, let's go." John had found his hoodie and wrapped it around himself, even though he didn't really need it anymore, no longer having to keep his skin hidden.

The two exited quickly onto the street above, Karkat's backpack slung over his shoulder. They turned left, heading towards the more populous part of the city. They walked past the apartment building, there were still bloodstains on the pavement.

"I guess Kanaya took care of her." Karkat commented, noticing that Feferi's body was gone.

'Mmhmm." John said, not wanting to linger more than he had to. They took up a light jog into one of the side alleyways, and this time John didn't feel so lost. He had been exploring around the city little by little, first with Karkat or Sollux, then on his own for a little bit. After a while they passed by one of the gates into the city, the one that John had come through. He paused in his step, barely illuminated in the slim alleyway and stared. Through the gate he could see the dark purples of the desert splayed beyond, and the outline of the armed guard. It was such a short time that he had been pushed through that gate himself, yet so much had happened. For a moment he briefly considered running at the gate, scaling it and sprinting into the desert. Just to see the wide open space, to feel the wind whipping through his hair.

However, he knew all too well that if he ever managed to escape in the desert, he would be burned by the sun long before he reached any sort of shelter. Would it be better to go that way? He wondered. To at least be free?

He was startled out of his thoughts by a hand on his shoulder, Karkat looked at him with a sad, sympathetic look, then pulled him out of view. They continued on, John shaking his head, until they reached what Karkat commonly referred to as the crossroads.

It was a courtyard of sorts, which once had been a parking lot. Faint smears of paint were visible under years of accumulated grime and graffiti. Flashes of yellow eyes were all that were to be seen, indicating groups of people milling about. Everyone spoke in whisper. There were at least ten adjoining alleyways and streets to the parking lot, so it was a common meeting and trading place. Karkat stepped up to the nearest group, John trailing behind like a reluctant shadow. Most of the inhabitants of Haven still terrified him, to be honest.

"Whatcha got?" One of them asked, a female troll with long, skinny braided hair. Karkat slid the backpack off his shoulder and opened it in one fluid motion.

"Noodles mostly, a few crackers. Water." The girl took off a pack of her own and showed Karkat the contents.

"Oh no way is that candy?" He asked, sounding a bit like a kid. The troll grinned, showing shark-like teeth.

"Hell yeah. Two waters, four noodles?"

"Three noodles. They're not that old."

"C'mon kid you're killing me. This is probably the last candy you're ever gonna taste."

"Fine, I'll throw in a pack of crackers."

"One?"

"One. It's like ten pieces, not even that much."

"Fine kiddo. Got yourself a deal." Karkat reached eagerly towards her pack, the troll's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. He sighed and forked over the food, then she proceeded to dump several brightly wrapped pieces of candy into his bag. Karkat bade farewell with a nod, then turned back to John, a huge grin on his face.

"Man, you have no idea how cool this is! I haven't had candy in years, holy shit."

John chuckled at Karkat's enthusiasm, then they both moved on to the next group.

Karkat managed to barter several packets of instant oatmeal for one ramen. The troll they were dealing with was a tall, heavily tattooed troll with matted hair and a permanently surprised expression. He never spoke a word, just gestured to various food items and indicated lower or higher value with his thumb.  
As part of his "training regime" as Karkat liked to call it, John had to barter with the next person. They moved around the group until he found a guy leaning against the brick wall of a nearby building, a cigarette burning in his lips. He was pleasant enough, but spoke in a weird accent that John couldn't quite place. He ended up trading two more ramens for several twinkies and some more crackers. When he rejoined Karkat, who had been standing off to the side and looking faintly annoyed, Karkat reminded him to actually barter because "It's your life on the line, you can't just hit the fucking supermarket around here, get as much as you can."

John sighed and agreed, but was still getting used to the whole system, not entirely expecting people to always be exploiting him. Karkat assured him that yes, they were.

However, by the end of the excursion, the backpack was well stocked with food other than chicken-flavored ramen, and they decided to head back.

Karka was silent, he jogged a few steps ahead of John. They reached the gate fairly quickly, and out of the corner of his eye John saw movement. He reached forward and grabbed Karkat's shoulder, pulling him to a stop. Karkat spun around, confused, and John raised a finger to his lips and crouched.

A truck could be seen in the distance, bumping along the otherwise empty road and then, after about thirty seconds, skidding to a stop. The back door was opened, and two white suited guards stepped out. John's stomach flipped as he experienced a terrible feeling of deja vu.

However, the person in the back of the truck was putting up far more of a fight than John had.

"Let go of me! Get the fuck off!" A girl shrieked from inside the truck. The guards had each lifted her up by one shoulder, but she was flailing and kicking. Her hands were cuffed behind her back. John's ears perked up. He knew that voice.

The black-suited guard was opening the gate, and Karkat made a noise of longing in his throat as it slid open, but made no motion. The two guards were shoving the girl forward, one of them removing her handcuffs. She twisted and turned, her hair flailing this way and that, screaming and digging her feet into the gravel.

Just before they shoved her inside she made a last, desperate move, attempting to wrestle the gun from the guard standing by the gate. He rebuffed by striking her on the head with the butt of the rifle. John winced, hearing the dull thud. She staggered, and the guard shoved her inside and closed the gate, then pointed the gun at her face.

She proceeded to spit in his face and start to run, still clearly addled, towards where John now knew was main street.

"We have to get her!" He whispered to Karkat, who looked at him like he was crazy, gesturing to the the guards still milling around the gate.

"She's my friend." John said, then lept up.

"No wait!" Karkat hissed, but John was sprinting, staying low to the ground and fevrently hoping that no one was looking his way. He caught up to the girl, who had slowed down to a limp, then grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around.

She caught him with a right hook, punching the side of his face so hard he staggered backwards. She was breathing heavily, clearly terrified, then turned and started running away from him.

"No, come back! Jade!"

She stopped, ten feet away, then swiveled around. She had a bruise across her left cheek, her eyes were wide behind her glasses.

"John…?" She said, half-whispering. "Is that you?"


	16. Chapter 16

John didn't say anything. Jade was still for a few more seconds, head slightly cocked to the side, intently staring at his face.

"I-" John began, but Jade lept at him, wrapping her arms around his own and pulling him into a tight hug.

"I knew I'd find you," She spoke into his shirt, her voice muffled. John relaxed into the hug, his nose buried in her hair, letting relief wash over him. He thought he would never see them again, nothing could describe how good this felt, just to have another body pressed against his.

She finally pulled away, her eyes once again traveling to his face, her arms still entwined in his and expression sad. The aura of warmth that had grown in his chest faded slowly as he realized why she was looking at him that way.

"I know I don't look much like myself anymore…" he trailed off.

"It's okay." She said. "I guess that's going to be me too." John suddenly felt horribly selfish, he had been so excited to see Jade he forgot what it meant.

"I'm really sorry," he started.

"No, it's really okay. I'm just glad to see you, I missed you so much. We all missed you so much." She smiled, showing her still crooked teeth and John managed to smile back. His face muscles were stiff, the smile felt out of place on his face. He couldn't remember the last time he had laughed, it hadn't been for a while.

"Hey, we need to go." Karkat said, appearing at John's shoulder. Jade's eyes bugged out and she lept backwards, pulling John's wrist and yanking him away from Karkat. The troll stopped and raised his hands, clearly startled.

"Careful, they're dangerous!" Jade hissed to John out of the corner of her mouth. Karkat shifted his gaze to John, looking hurt.

"No, he's my friend! That's Karkat, he saved my life." Jade look astonished, her eyes travelling back and forth between their faces.

"But he's...you know...fully turned." She said to John. Karkat scowled.

"Ok listen here dipshit-" he started.

"Whoa, whoa easy!" John said, pulling his hand out of Jade's grasp and leaping between but she had already let out an indignant gasp.

"Dipshit? At least I'm not a monster!"

"Ok, no that's really not necessary," John said while pushing back Karkat as he attempted to leap forward.

"What makes me a monster you're just the same as me!"

"I am not the same as you! Look at you!"

"Guys! Stop!" Jade had lept forward too, John used his left hand to keep her at arms length, he struggled keeping the two apart.

"Look at me? You're here! You're in this fucking city you're gonna look like me In a month tops."

"I'm still a normal person! You've already progressed too far and probably started killing people who knows you probably have a pile of bodies stored up in your-"

"SHUT UP I DON'T KILL PEOPLE."

"LOOK AT THIS PLACE, EVERYONE IS DEAD, TELL ME THAT THIS DISEASE DOESN'T MAKE YOU KILL PEOPLE."

"HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT YOU'RE JUST LIKE ME YOU'VE GOT THIS TOO YOU'RE NO BETTER."

"GUYS KNOCK IT OFF!" John shouted, pushing hard and sending both parties staggering back where they stood, glaring at John.

"Ok Jade I know you're just scared, but please stop being an asshole." She opened her mouth, about to reply but John stuck his hand up, silencing her.

"Karkat, I'm really sorry, but can she still stay?" Karkat sighed.

"I'm not going to kick you out Egbert. But can it wait like an hour? I've got a recently blinded best friend and a chainsaw wielding maniac to deal with back home."

"Yeah. Thanks." John said. Karkat shrugged and left, quickly vanishing back into the alley.

John turned back to Jade, who looked slightly sheepish.

"Let's walk?" He said.

"Yeah." He turned and entered an alley that would take them the longer way back home. Jade ran to quickly catch his step, linking her arm around his.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. It's kind of a lot to deal with, I know."

"How have you been?" She smiled. "This seems so weird, it feels like you just left yesterday."

John almost returned the grin, then began speaking. He started from the beginning, with the almost being murdered, and then Karkat and so on. She interjected every few seconds with gasps or "really?". By the time he had finished recounting his story they were nearly at the bunker, which John hadn't stepped in in several weeks. He showed Jade the inside of the clothing store, but no farther.

"Can we go up?" She said, staring at the top of the building once they had gone back outside. It was a clear night, the stars were visible and the street was bathed in moonlight.

"C'mon!" He said, running back inside.

The climb was slightly more perilous this time, with the wind being much stronger than it had the first day he had climbed. Already the idea of being out in the sunlight was strange to John.

They reached the top in hardly any time, Jade scrambling up easily, used to climbing trees and buildings back home. It had been a pastime of the four of them, to scale tall structures and just sit at the top, sometimes not even speaking. He vividly remembered one time when they were sixth graders and John was sure they were going to get arrested after being chased off the roof of the local elementary school. Half of them were missing, but sitting side by side with Jade made John feel more whole than he had in weeks.

"How are they?" He said after several minutes of aimless stargazing.

"They...I don't know. It was hard, we all missed you so much. I think they'll be all right. We're all gonna feel better knowing that you're not alone." She paused for a moment and continued. "These past few months have been really weird. When you were...diagnosed I guess, they didn't really say anything. We didn't realize until the end of the day, Dave went back inside to look for you after class, but your locker had been cleaned out already."

"He went in my locker?"

"We all know your passcode." She smiled, but it faded away fast. "And then finally the principal told us. We went in and made a racket and they finally told us. And after that it was very quiet. Dave stopped talking altogether. Rose got kinda weird and dark. We would hang out like normal and stuff but it would be so different. We'd spend hours just sitting there, staring at stuff. Sometimes we'd go and see your dad."

"My dad?" John's voice caught in his throat, he'd avoided these kinds of thoughts on purpose.

"Yeah. He would bake us stuff still, but didn't talk that much either at first. But then he moved in with Rose and her mom."

"Rose?"

"Yeah. She was a bit weirded out at first, but him and her mom mostly stayed out of her way. I think Roxy is good for your dad personally, he always seemed a bit happier when she was around."

John felt tears prick up behind his eyes, he took off his glasses and hastily wiped them.

"Oh no, John…" Jade said, seeing him.

"Fuck," he muttered, trying futilely to stop them from coming.

"No, no, it's fine," She reached out her arm, placing it over his shoulder as John began to shake.

"I-I just-" And then the sobs came, huge wracking sobs that had been carefully repressing the whole time. Jade squeezed him close and rocked gently back and forth and John sobbed into her shoulder. Tears were flowing freely down his cheeks as he inhaled in shuddering breaths. Every emotion that he had been feeling flowed out in a senseless rhythm. His dad, his friends, slowly morphing into a monster. Seeing kids his age murdered. Burying Tavros. The sickening scent of troll blood. Mindfang. Being so scared all the time, not being able to do anything, not being able to exalt the slightest control. The ever growing feeling of being an animal, trapped in a cage, unable to see daylight. Jade just slowly rocked him back and forth, leaning her head against the top of his. She was here too, now she was going to die and change and become different. John wailed and coughed, unable to articulate any of this into words.

But Jade understood just as well.

After several minutes John eventually quieted down, sliding down until his head rested in Jade's lap, eyes squeezed closed. She absentmindedly began combing his hair with her fingers, tears dripped off the end of his nose, making spots on her skirt. Whether John was asleep or just very still Jade didn't know. She sat that way for a long time, until her legs began to go numb. She thought about what John had told her, both about the people he had had the luck of meeting and of what was going to happen to both of them.

She was terrified, and even though she had convinced herself in the ambulance journey here that she was not, it was true. Nothing would be the same again, she thought. But at least I'm not alone.

**(this is what happens when i listen to sad music when i write. but i think i had to tone down the extreme action for a chapter or so.) **


	17. Chapter 17

John woke up a few hours before dawn, his head still planted firmly in Jade's lap. He sat up, rubbing dried tears off his face for the second time that day.

"Let's head back?" He asked, and Jade nodded. The journey back was silent, Jade contemplating what John had told her. She was a little nervous to meet the other trolls, seeing Karkat again was going to be especially embarrassing considering her previous outburst. They arrived at the Candy Shop, Jade slowly stepping inside with a look of wonder on her face.

"This is so pretty! It's the coolest place to have a secret room underground."

"You think so?" She nodded. John shrugged, he himself had found it kind of creepy when he first arrived, but then again Jade had always had the strange talent of seeing the good side of things.

They reached the end of the hallway below the trapdoor to find the door locked. John knocked once and yelled, "It's me!". There was a shuffling of footsteps and the door was opened a moment later by Karkat. He saw Jade over John's shoulder and scowled, turning away and leaving the door standing open. John sighed and followed him inside, hoping the two would start getting along soon.

Sollux was sprawled on the couch, head tilted upward and was fiddling with a faded rubiks cube without looking at it. Kanaya was perched on one of the armchairs, water dripping off her cropped hair and onto the shoulders of a ratty sweater.

John pulled Jade, who had been hovering around his shoulder, in front of him.

"Guys, Karkat probably already told you, but this is Jade. She's my friend from before I came here."

"I'm Kanaya," she said, smiling briefly.

"Sollux."

Karkat, who had gone to stand by Kanaya, muttered something under his breath. Kanaya socked him in the arm, then turned to Jade.

"Are you hungry? We were just putting up some food."

"Yeah, thanks," she said. She crossed the room and sat on one of the wooden chairs near the table. John copied her, but pulled his a little farther away. He didn't want to have anything to do with that table for a while. In fact, the entire place was becoming more and more claustrophobic by each additional person moving in. They were now short two beds, John longed for the Bunker, which had at least three times more space and at least ten spots to sleep.

"So any news on Terezi?" He asked. Karkat looked up.

"Haven't heard from her. I don't even know if she's gonna do it."

"I just wanna get back to the Bunker. This place sucks." Sollux interjected. "No offense."

"It's a little small when you all take refuge here," Kanaya answered, rolling her eyes.

"I just wish she would stop trying to be so fucking elusive...I mean shes a teenager like the rest of us, she just is a little crazier." Karkat groaned.

"Water's ready…" Sollux said. All four of them turned to the camp stove in the corner, sure enough a pot of water was bubbling rapidly.

"How did you…?" Karkat asked.

"I smelled it using my new blind guy nose powers." He said, sitting up and running a hand through his hair so that it stood on end. He turned over the back of the couch to face the general direction that John and Jade were sitting, eyes closed.

"Sup Egbert? Just waltzing around picking up chicks I hear," He grinned, and John could see with a pang that several of his teeth were missing or broken.

Jade made an irritated noise in her throat, but didn't say anything else.

"Oh, Jade," he continued, "I'm sorry in advance for how stupid I look right now, but as you probably know I nearly just got murdered."

"Yeah, John told me," She said quietly. Sollux then opened his eyes, and she recoiled back in her chair. John only flinched slightly as the two gaping holes stared at him. They seemed bigger than his eyes had been, deep craters sunk in the boy's slightly scarred face.

Sollux chuckled slightly, imagining Jade's reaction, and closed his eyes again, sinking back down onto the couch. Karkat had joined him now that he had sat up, and all five of them sat in silence, the only sound cooking noodles.

"Did you eat the candy already?" John finally asked as Kanaya began dishing out noodles in chipped bowls.

"You kidding?" Karkat answered. "I'm saving that shit. It's gold man, gotta lock it up. Here, careful, it's hot," he added in an undertone as he placed a steaming bowl into Sollux's hands. John got up and moved toward the camp stove, grabbing two bowls of noodles for him and Jade.

She accepted the bowl and began slurping the noodles down ravenously, John remembering that it had probably been the first time eating anything all day.

"Sorry, I should have gotten you something to eat earlier."

"S'okay. This is good," She said in between bites. Karkat was the first to speak a minute later.

"Hey, Jade was it?" She nodded. "I'm sorry about earlier I shouldn't've said that stuff."

"No, it's okay. I started it."

"Did you guys brawl or something?" Sollux interjected.

"They were trying but I kept getting in the way," John answered.

"Good. Kk would've gotten his ass kicked anyways."

"Hey!"

"I agree with Sollux."

"No one cares! I could totally take her anyways."

"I doubt it. Ya should've seen her back home, she was beating people up left and right."

"John! That was one time…"

"That was at least three times."

"You beat up three people?"

"Hey, that's coming from the girl with the chainsaw."

The melee of voices rose, jumbling together along with giggles. John smiled, despite the crazy things that had happened not that long ago, everything seemed pretty okay. Kanaya did look a little strained still, and Karkat was glancing at Sollux a few times more than necessary but they still laughed along with Jade and himself.

Everyone finished their meals quickly, and the bowls were gathered by John who dumped them in the shower. He couldn't remember whose turn it was to do the dishes, but he was pretty sure it wasn't his.

When he got back, Jade tugged on his sweatshirt.

"Can I sleep somewhere? It's like, three in the morning."

"Oh, yeah I forgot, sorry. Kanaya?" She looked up.

"Where should she…?" he said, gesturing at Jade.

"Oh, she can take my bed."

"Really?" Jade said. "Thanks!"

"Oh, so she gets a bed," Sollux grumbled.

"Dude, I've been sleeping on the floor for the past like month," John reminded him.

"Follow me, I'll show you where it is," Kanya said, standing and gesturing to Jade, who rose from her chair.

"By the way, thank you! All of you, you guys are really awesome," she said then followed Kanaya to the bedroom.

John, now by himself in the corner of the room, got up and joined Sollux and Karkat on the couch.

"So is she hot?" Sollux said after a moment. Karkat rolled his eyes.

"You're such an asshole."

"Yeah, yeah I was kidding." he replied, sounding slightly deflated. Kanaya returned, shutting the door behind her.

"Scoot over," She said to Karkat, who slowly wiggled to the right. Kanaya flopped down and brought her knees up to her chest, resting her forehead on them.

"Are you okay?" Karkat asked. She shrugged.

"What you did was justified," Sollux said. "You don't need to feel guilty about it."

"I know. But still…"

Karkat struggled to extract his arm from between them, John, Kanaya, Sollux and Karkat were wedged together quite tightly, but he managed to wrap it around Kanaya's shoulders.

"Hey, it's-"

BANG!

The door crashed open, causing the four of them to jump and Sollux yelp "Who?"

"I'll do it!" Terezi stood framed in the doorway, dragon-headed cane clutched in her fist, glasses glinting dangerously.

"Fucking shit Terezi you could've just knocked…"

"I've decided," she continued, ignoring Karkat, "that based on all the evidence and through careful consideration that Mindfang is guilty, and I will help you dispose of her."

"Well that's a relief at least," Sollux said. Terezi bounded to the armchair and sat down, crossing her legs and staring intently in their general direction.

"The investigation starts now," she said. "The first thing we have to do is locate the perpetrator, now this isn't going to be easy because I'm pretty sure there isn't a soul in Haven who knows where she resides. We only know of two locations that she's for sure visited. The first one is the Bunker, we know that she's been there at least twice, maybe more, but we don't know that she will return now that she knows you haven't been there in weeks. We could wait around, but probably won't be worth the time or energy."

"So what's the second place?" Sollux asked. Terezi grinned and held up her left arm in response. Sollux raised his eyebrows questioningly, waiting for a response.

"Her arm," Karkat said hastily.

"Ahh."

"Her what?" John asked, confused.

"Mindfang lost an arm, many years ago."

"She had both arms when I saw her."

"Yeah, that's because it's robotic. A very intricate, complicated prosthetic that you could only find in one spot. Which means we have to see…."

Sollux nodded in response.

"Zahhak."


	18. Chapter 18

"How long do we have until the sun comes up?" Karkat asked, looking up at the greying ceiling.

"At least three hours. Plenty of time. Sollux, you know where he is?" Terezi replied.

"...Yeah."

"Well then you're with me. Let's go."

"Yeah I don't think that would work out too well. You know what they say…"

"Huh?"

"About the blind leading the blind." There was a very awkward pause.

"Wait you're not….?"

"It was Eridan. A few days ago. Kanaya killed him after."

"Oh," Was all she said for a moment.

"I can still find it though. Zahhak's place."

"Good. How are you doing with it?"

"I'm managing."

"That's good to hear. Hang around me a little longer, I'll show you what you need to know." She grinned, and then stood up.

"What are we waiting for?"

"Wait, what about Jade?" Kanaya asked, jerking her head in the direction of the bedroom.

"We can't bring her, she hasn't changed and it would just draw attention," Karkat said rather grumpily.

John turned and walked to the bedroom, pushing open the door to find Jade sprawled across the bed, face smashed into the pillow. He shook her shoulder.

"Wha'sit?" She asked without opening her eyes.

"We're going out for a couple hours...stay here okay? There's food in the cupboard if you're hungry or whatever."

"Mm'k." She turned over and was snoring within ten seconds.

John found a black and grey striped sweatshirt lying on the floor and pulled it on, then exited the room, closing the door softly behind him. The group was waiting for him, Sollux's arm wrapped around Karkat's, Terezi with her ridiculous teal and red ensemble and Kanaya in a long black coat that John suspected held several concealable weapons.

They exited the candy shop and began walking to the right, per Sollux's directions. Terezi kept sighing as she had to slow down her extremely fast paced jogging so John, Karkat and Sollux could catch up. Other than that, they kept the noise to a minimum as they would their way through alleyways, buildings and around the city. John was impressed by Sollux's memory, he knew that he could never remember this many turns and twists without seeing them, but, without fail Sollux led them to the right spot.

They stood in the middle of what was probably once a textile factory of some sort, the rusted and ancient machines looming over them. The air was thick with dust and, though there was no one else around, John swore he could hear faint clinking noises coming from somewhere below. Sollux stood in the middle of the room.

"Is the door behind me?"

"Yeah."

He pointed to his right. "That way."

The group advanced, weaving through the still machines until they reached the back wall. There was a set of double doors, which Karkat and Terezi pulled open. There was a rush of musty air as the doors opened to reveal a staircase leading down into inky blackness. Sollux reached out and grabbed Karkat's wrist again, tugging him forward.

"Let's go. But be quiet." The look on Karkat's face made it all to clear that he thought going down the shady-looking staircase was a very bad idea, but he proceeded anyway. John was the last to enter, sparing a glance at the dusty room behind him, which suddenly seemed much more friendly and welcoming, but still turned and followed his friends as they began their descent. John was on the fifteenth step when the doors slowly swung shut. Everyone paused, it was suddenly pitch black.

"What?" Terezi said, as she nearly ran into Karkat.

"The door closed, we can't see anything."

Terezi giggled. "Well that's no excuse to stop. Here, grab on, all of you." John could hear jostling as Terezi switched positions with Karkat to take the lead. John reached his hands forward until he came in contact with Kanaya's shoulder, then grabbed on.

"Everyone here?" Terezi asked.

"Yeah."

"Ok, let's go. Those who are overly dependant on eyes careful not to trip." They continued awkwardly down the stairs in, as Karkat put it, "like a fucking conga line on a stairway of death". John managed to only trip twice, which was a major achievement considering how he normally functioned without vision, and thankfully Kanaya was quick enough on her feet not to stumble forward into Sollux. A domino effect would be of even less help than usual in this particular situation.

After about fifteen minutes of muttered "fuck" and "that's my foot dumbass" and "don't trip don't trip"s, the five of them stood at the beginning of a long, dark hallway. The clinnking and tinkering noises John had heard earlier were now more pronounced. What was it Zahhak did again? John wondered, thinking back to that conversation with Karkat on the roof several months ago. Oh yeah, he remembered. Robotics.

"We go down this hallway." Sollux said, and they all began walking forward. Their footsteps echoed around the walls, The ceiling was high and crisscrossed with rafters. They were halfway down the hallway when Sollux suddenly stopped.

"Watch out for the cat girl." He whispered.

"What?"

"The cat girl. She's going to come. Be careful."

"What the hell are you-?" Karkat began but then abruptly stopped, because a figure had just dropped from the rafter above to land in a crouch in front of him. Karkat leapt backwards into Kanaya, who pushed him back upright. John could see the silhouette of the figure over Karkat's head as they straightened up, but it was hardly a difference in size, they couldn't be more than four feet tall.

"Who are you?" Her voice was soft and whispery, yet childlike.

"It's me," Sollux answered. "We're here to see him."

The girl giggled, but it wasn't a sweet sound, more like the kind of giggle that you would hear echoing around an empty house in a cliched horror movie.

"It is you, but you're very different!

There's something missing." All John could see of here were the glowing eyes. They moved closer.

"Who stole your eyes? Was it the prince? Did he take your eyes? You deserved it you know, messing around with her, who do you think you are, you know that everyone you touch dies, did you not learn your lesson the first time around? I know why you come here."

Sollux's hand was laced around Karkat's arm and he was gripping so tight his knuckles had turned white.

"Hey, back off!" Kanaya had stepped between the two of them, looming over the cat girl.

"I know about you too!" She crooned. Judging by her voice she couldn't have been more than seven or eight, but what she was saying was beyond what a normal child could. "I know that you killed him, you sliced him to bits and the worst part about it was that you liked it. That's what's scaring you, you actually liked it." Kanaya's face had paled, and she swung out at the child with her fist, but suddenly the girl was swinging by the rafter above.

"You can't catch me!" She said in a singsong voice. Terezi scowled and placed a hand on Kanaya's shoulder. "Leave her alone. Let's keep going."

"Let's keep going!" The girl echoed, swinging back and forth from, not her arms or legs, but what seemed to be a mechanical tail protruding from the back of her jacket.

"She's not usually this bad," Sollux said, shaking slightly. They continued on, trying to ignore the presence of the girl, who was now standing and running lightly on the rafters above their heads. John could tell that Karkat was nearly reaching his breaking point as the girl began to hum a string of insults. He finally stopped, wheeling around and staring up at the ceiling.

"Ok freak, listen up. You need to shut the fuck up or get down here right now, what is your problem?" She did a dainty leap and landed in front of him.

"My problem? I don't have a problem, but you do, I know your secret, I know that you're going to-"

"SHUT UP!" Karkat screamed, his face becoming flushed, hands balling into fists.

"We're almost there okay? Just ignore her," John said, pulling at Karkat's shoulder with one hand and dragging Sollux forward with the other. Kanaya was wide eyed and silent, Terezi grim.

John charged forward, breaking into a run as they reached the end of the hallway, then turned into a large room. The cat girl scuttled past them and ran forward until she was out of sight. John's eyes were wide as he took in the room, it was dimly lit by flickering fluorescent lights, and they entire room was filled with rows of metal tables and benches. Each table was piled high with metal parts, hundreds of screws in neat boxes, scrap metal and carefully welded joints discarded left and right. The group moved forward, weaving through the tables until they reached the source of the noise.

Zahhak was in the center of one of the tables, gently tapping at what looked like a kneecap with a huge mallet, using precision that would seem impossible for someone his size. He was the tallest troll that John had seen so far, even though he didn't look too much older than any of the others. His arms were bulky, and his hands huge but gentle. His hair was pulled back into a sloppy ponytail and wore cracked glasses. Just then the cat girl appeared, leaping lightly onto the table.

"What is it Nepeta?" He asked.

"We have guests. Do you think they would like tea?" Equius looked up.

"I thought I told you the deal was off, Captor." Sollux stiffened.

"That's not why we're here," Terezi answered instead.

"We need information on Mindfang."

**(so for those of you asking about nepeta...i hope you don't get too mad about my take on her, i wanted to change things up a little. sorry for the wait, everything has been a bit crazy for me right now. thank you for reading 3)**


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